A Cabinet sub-committee to decide the fate of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) in Maharashtra will visit Bihar and Tamil Nadu to study how the provisions can be implemented “in its 2010 form” with one amendment.
The committee, headed by State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anil Parab, held its first meeting on Thursday and decided that Maharashtra must reject the latest NPR amendments, including those related to the contentious clause related to ‘date and place of parents’ birth’. Maharashtra is willing to implement the NRC/NPR if the clause is dropped like in Bihar and Tamil Nadu, committee members believed.
The two States were among the first to pass resolutions not to implement NRC, and said the NPR should be implemented “in its 2010 form” with one amendment. “We want to study their model and will soon visit these States. Once the visit is complete, we will submit our report to the Chief Minister, who will decide what stand Maharashtra has to take,” said a senior State minister.
Thursday’s meeting was attended by Minority Development Minister Nawab Malik, Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad, Animal Husbandry Minister Sunil Kedar, Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had announced in the recently-concluded Budget session that a committee had been formed to guide him to take a final decision on the contentious legislations.
The committee was constituted on March 13, 2020.
