Separate NPR from Census, demands BJP

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday urged the Centre to separate the ongoing census work from the collection of data for the National Population Register so as to ''prevent infiltrators from across the border from entering the NPR who may claim citizenship later.''

Addressing reporters here, Naidu said Infiltrators from the neighbourhood may enter the NPR by declaring themselves as Indian nationals.''The provision for self-declaration is dangerous,'' he stated.

Unfortunately, the Centre has put the onus on a complainant to prove that a particular person is not an Indian national, he said and feared that Assamese would become minorities in their own country if this was allowed.

Many infiltrators first get their names registered in ration cards and voters list later before acquiring Indian citizenship, he stated.

Naidu stated that former Home Minister Inderjit Gupta had informed Parliament that there were one crore infilitrators living in the country.

He also criticized the Centre for the delay in execution of death sentence awarded to Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.He urged the Centre to ensure the speedy execution of 26/11 accused Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab.

Expressing happiness over the judiciary awarding punishment to Kasab in a transparent manner, he said that ''Kasab deserves no mercy.