Doda, Mar 20: Union Minister for Health, Ghulam Nabi Azad, launched National Population Register (NPR) project here, today.
 The objective of the NPR project, which envisages taking photographs, finger prints and IRIS of all usual residents, is to help better targeting of the benefits and services under various government schemes and programmes, improve planning and security of the country besides preventing identity fraud.
 Joint Director, Census Operations, J&K, C. S. Sapru gave a brief introduction of the Project and explained the methodology for executing the project and its benefits.
 The government has decided to create NPR of all the ‘usual residents’ in the country by collecting specific information of each resident which is being prepared at the local (village/ward), Sub District (tehsil), district, state and national level.
 The register would also have photographs, ten fingerprints and IRIS of all usual residents of age 5 years and above, an official statement said.
 The NPR database would be sent to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for de-duplication and issuance of unique ID numbers. It will be a register of usual residents which would include citizens as well as non-citizens. Besides, the resident identity (smart) card, proposed under the scheme, is meant for usual residents of the country who are of age 18 years and above.
 The additional data fields being collected during capture of biometrics for NPR included ration card number, EPIC number, MNREGA job card no, driving licence number, PAN card number, beneficiary group (Antyodaya/BPL/APL) and passport number.
 The State Governments have been allowed to add three more additional fields as per their requirements.
 Minister for Health, Shabir Khan, Minister for Information Technology, Vikar Rasool, Minister for Road & Building, Abdul Majeed Wani, Director, Census Operations, J&K, R. K. Bhagat, and Deputy Commissioner, Doda, Farooq Ahmad Khan were present on the occasion.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Mar 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:30:00 GMT
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