Mumbai: Union home minister Amit Shah spoke about 2021 census and said that this time the census will be conducted on a mobile phone instead of paper verification. It is a transformation from paper to digital census, he said.

Shah was speaking to a gathering, today (September 23) and said that there is a need for a multipurpose ID card instead of separate cards like passport, Aadhaar, voter card, driving licence and bank accounts.

Shah also said that there should be a system to update the information automatically in the population data when a person dies.

He detailed the gathering about the National Population Register (NPR) and said that it is very important that the schemes of government reach the beneficiaries. The NPR will help the government solve many issues in the country, he said.

Population census helps to provide people with benefits of the government schemes, he added.

NPR is a record of the residents of the country. It will be prepared at the village-town, district, state and national level. The NPR is being prepared under the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

The name will be added in the NPR if a person has resided in the particular area for the past 6 months or more or even a person who intends to reside at a place for the next six months can find a place in the register.

Shah also said that NPR will be prepared for the first time in the 2021 census. He also said that Centre will spend around Rs 12,000 crore on preparing the NPR and census. This is the highest any government in India has spent on the census, so far.