Government decides to link National Population Register with Aadhar number

Government has decided to update the National Population Register (NPR) and seed the Aadhaar number in the NPR database.

Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha that the initiative would cost Rs 951.35 crore and the field work would be completed by March 2016.

"This updated NPR database along with Aadhaar number would become the mother database and can be used by various government departments for selection of beneficiaries under their respective schemes", he said in reply to a written question.

There is no duplication of efforts as all the agencies namely Registrar General of Citizen Registration India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Unique Identification Authority of India, NITI Aayog, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Mission, Ministry of Finance and State/Union Territories Governments are working in close coordination for completion of the above exercise.

The National Population Register is a Register of usual residents of the country. The project is being implemented by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.

The Unique Identification Authority of India is responsible for collecting the biometrics and demographic data of residents, store them in a centralised database, and issue a 12-digit unique identify number called Aadhaar to each resident. It is considered the world's largest national identification number project.