NEW DELHI: The final NPR exercise, which is to begin from April 1 along with the Census, is likely to retain controversial questions that were asked during the ‘pre-test’ such as date and place of birth of parents, details of driving licence, voter identification card, last place of residence etc, according to government sources.
However, information on Permanent Account Number (PAN) — that was sought during the trial stage in August last year — is now being dropped from the final NPR based on the responses it received from around 30 lakh respondents during the pre-test.
There will be a new category of ‘mother tongue’ in the final NPR form, officials said.
The NPR exercise conducted in 2010 and updated in 2015 collected details on 14 parameters, but the upcoming NPR will seek details on 21 parameters, which includes some new columns, seeking details on ‘place of birth of father and mother, and last place of residence’ along with other information like Aadhaar (optional), voter ID card, mobile phone and driving licence numbers.
Earlier, Congress leaders had cited the new details of NPR pre-test to accuse the government of smuggling elements of NRC into the NPR exercise.
Officials said the form or Schedule to collect NPR data can be updated even in March.
“The final form can have more questions but for now, these are the parameters on which we are looking to collect details in NPR, which is used for the implementation of government schemes. We can add new questions even in March,” an official said.
Officials said NPR enumerators will not seek any documents or verify the documents provided. They will merely note down the details provided by the respondent, they added.