No link between NPR and NRC : Amit Shah

NEW DELHI, Dec 24
There is no link between National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday hours after the Union Cabinet cleared the digital register, a comprehensive identity database of all those living in India.
Shah’s statement in an interview with news agency ANI comes amid announcements by Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Kerala to pull back from the exercise to collect data for the NPR. It is a decision that has been supported by Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
“My simple request to the two Chief Ministers is to reconsider this decision,” Shah told the news agency, insisting that their decision would hurt the poor who benefit from Government schemes.
The Home Minister also said he would reach out to the two Chief Ministers and others if needed to persuade them. “I don’t want the poor of Kerala and West Bengal to suffer,” he said.
“This population register is going to be the foundation of the development activities that are carried out,” he said.
Responding to a question on Owaisi asserting that the population register was effectively an NRC with a different name, Shah said the AIMIM leader always opposes whatever the BJP says.
“If we say the Sun rises in the east, he will say west. This is his stand. But I assure Owaisi ji also that this (NPR) has nothing to do with the NRC,” he said.  Hindustan Times