KTR says, State government to take call on NPR, NRC at proper time

The TRS government will take a call on allowing citizens’ data collection under the National Population Register (NPR) or the National Register of Citizens (NRC) after the Union government asks the State to implement it, TRS working president and IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said on Thursday.

“No direction from the Government of India has been sent to any State government. When the order comes, then the Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will deliberate with the Cabinet and take a decision as a government. There is no need for anyone to apprehend that TRS has deviated from its stand,” he said. “TRS stood by whatever its MPs had said in both the Houses of Parliament as per the directions of the CM and party president K Chandrashekhar Rao,” he said.

Reiterating the party’s stand against the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he said the law was discriminatory against a section of the population based on their religion. “TRS spoke vociferously and we followed it up with action. We are one of the few parties in the country whose members opposed the Bill. The Act should be inclusive as unity and diversity is our



strength, and CAA in its current form is not acceptable as it excludes Muslims,” the Minister asserted. 

Giving reasons for his party’s opposition to the CAA, he said: “The country didn’t witness large-scale protests when the triple talaq bill was introduced or when Article 370 was abrogated. This time, there is opposition from the people of the nation because the CAA is not good for the country,” he said. To a question on banning implementation of CAA in the State just like Kerala did, he said that what Kerala had done was their business. That is not binding on us, there could be a demand asking us to follow suit. We will take a decision when the situation is right,” the TRS working president said.

Countering BJP allegations that TRS was dancing to the tunes of AIMIM on CAA-NPR-NRC, he said that BJP should focus more on economy and job creation rather than meddling with political opponents, religion and issues that have no direct impact on the common man. “They (BJP) must worry about what is happening with the US and Iran turmoil, how crude oil and vegetable prices might go up etc,” he pointed out.