New Delhi, September 23: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday pitched for a multipurpose identity card for Indian citizens. The multipurpose ID card will have details about the citizen's passport, Aadhaar card, driving licence and bank accounts. Amit Shah mooted the idea of a multipurpose ID card for citizens while laying the foundation stone of a new building of the Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner in the national capital. Uttarakhand Joins NRC Chorus After Assam Publishes Final Citizens Roll: List of States Mooting Drive to Weed Out Illegal Immigrants.

"Why can’t we have just one card for all utilities like Aadhaar, passport, bank account, driving licence, voter card. There should be a system that all data should be put together in a single card. This is potential. That is why digital census is very important," Shah was quoted as saying. The Home Minister also said that the National Population Register (NPR), once completed, will help citizens in availing government schemes. Monkey Census in Delhi For First Time To Gauge Trouble Created by The Animal.

"Population census is an exercise that helps to provide people with the benefits of government schemes. National Population Register (NPR) will help the government solve many issues in the country…the Census 2011 data used for Ujjwala Yojana to increase domestic LPG cylinder coverage," Shah said. The government aims to prepare an NPR by September 2020 to lay the foundation for rolling out a citizens’ register across the country.

Once the NPR is completed, it is likely to lay the basis of a nation-wide National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise on lines of the one that was carried out in Assam. Shah announced that the Modi government will spend Rs 12,000 crore on the 2021 Census as well as for the preparation of the NPR.

The Home Minister further announced that the Census 2021 data will be collected through a mobile app. "A mobile app will be used in Census 2021. It will be a transformation from paper census to digital census," Shah said championing the usage of digital technology for the upcoming Census. The previous Census exercise of 2011 was a paper-based one.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 23, 2019 04:35 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).