Population Register In Tamil Nadu Will Invite People's Ire, Says MK Stalin

DMK president MK Stalin on Sunday urged the AIADMK government to not allow the National Population Register drive in Tamil Nadu, saying any move to go ahead with it would invite "stern opposition" from the people.

He also renewed DMK's demand for an anti-CAA resolution in the state assembly and said only such a move would be an "atonement" for supporting the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament.

Writing to party cadres, Mr Stalin said the AIADMK government should not allow the National Population Register exercise in Tamil Nadu under any circumstances.

"If the government attempted to do it to fulfil the objective of the BJP government at the Centre, I would like to caution that it will invite strong opposition from the people," he said.

He urged the government to take steps for passing the resolution against Citizenship Amendment Act during the budget session, commencing on February 14.

Thanking his party workers and cadres of alliance parties for ''active'' participation in the "one crore signature campaign" against the CAA, NPR and National Register of Citizens (NRC), he said as ''expected'', it has turned into a people's movement and so far it has seen over two crore signatures.

On February 2, Mr Stalin launched the campaign of the DMK- led alliance which comprise among others the Congress. It is expected to be completed soon and the signatures are to be submitted to President Ram Nath Kovind.

The DMK chief, who is also the leader of opposition in Tamil Nadu, said the battle against the CAA will be taken forward if the Centre failed to reconsider its stand even after seeing the response to its signature campaign.

According to the Home Ministry, the NPR is a register of usual residents of the country. A usual resident is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.

It's objective is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars.

The government has defended NPR, saying it was being updated to allow the rightful beneficiaries get the benefit of welfare schemes.