Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Sep 17: Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner V Ponnuraj informed that 11 villages of the district have been selected for the implementation of the national population registration (NPR) programme of the union government. He gave this information at a meeting of the officials held on Tuesday September 15, at the auditorium of the office of the deputy commissioner here.
"The central government plans to implement the NPR programme in the coastal villages in the initial stages. Atikaribettu, Padupanambur, Pavanje, Haleangady, Malavoor, Arkula, Amblamogaru, Harekal, Pavoor, Talapady and Chelairu villages have been selected for the NPR implementation in this phase. The registration will not be taken up in towns or cities at present, he explained.
"This programme has been undertaken as per rule 3(4) of Indian Citizenship Act 2003. The officials need to show the same level of commitment they showed during the election, in this work. If non-cooperation of any kind is observed, disciplinary action will be taken against the concerned," he warned.
The deputy commissioner added, that the identity card being issued under the NPR is not to decide the citizenship of a person, but to pool figures of how many people have been residing in a particular place since how many hours. He advised people to provide details of only those family members who have been living here continuously during the past six months. If the family members are residing somewhere else, they would be accounted for at that place, he clarified. He requested the people not to lend an ear to rumours like the one the officials encountered in Sasihithlu village, where people thought that the NPR was aimed at collecting data for land acquisition.
Karnataka State Census Operations director T K Anil Kumar said that the operation is aimed at scuttling the attempts being made to unscrupulous people to defraud the government by creating fake documents and make identification of the citizens easier. He asked the officials to wholeheartedly get engaged in this task, as this will be a service to the nation. The central government decided to hasten the process in the coast after the Mumbai attack, as coast is considered a sensitive area, he explained.
Additional deputy commissioner Prabhakar Sharma, superintendent of police Subrahmanyeshwar Rao and additional superintendent of police Ramesh were present.