The clubbing of the exercise to prepare the National Population Register — that has run into controversy across the country — with the decadal Census ensured near-full attendance at the meeting called by the Union home ministry on Friday but some non-BJP state governments raised concerns about the NPR.

Home secretary Ajay Bhalla sought to address the concerns about additional information being sought this time for the NPR, saying certain questions were not mandatory and people would not be required to provide any documentation.

Queries introduced by the Narendra Modi government on the date and place of birth of parents besides Aadhaar details have caused anxiety since the NPR is the mother data for the National Register of Citizens. Union home minister Amit Shah is on record stating that an NRC would be conducted across the nation.

Since only an executive order is required to prepare the NRC, the fear is that the government can do so once the NPR has been prepared.

The Union home ministry had convened the conference to discuss the modalities for the house-listing phase of the Census 2021 and the NPR exercise to be carried out from April 1 to September 30.

All states barring Bengal are said to have been represented at the meeting.

Kerala, which has issued instructions that the NPR process will not be carried out, participated in the meeting because it also dealt with the census.

“We have no issue with the census, so it was not possible to stay away,” said an official privy to the deliberations in the state government on the issue.

Rajasthan chief secretary Devendra Bhushan Gupta told reporters that he and colleagues from some other states raised objections about a few questions listed in the NPR, including queries regarding the birthplace of parents.

“I don’t know what is the purpose of such questions and we have told the meeting to remove such questions,” Gupta said.

The Assemblies of Kerala and Punjab have adopted resolutions calling for a repeal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and registering their opposition to the NPR in its current form.

Even the first NPR — conducted in 2010 — was carried out along with the house-listing phase of the previous decadal census but this time concerns have arisen in the wake of the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

The questions on parents’ place of birth — which were not asked in the 2010 NPR — have added to the anxiety that the NPR was the prelude to the nationwide NRC that could result in a large number of Indians being declared “doubtful citizens” because of their inability to provide the necessary information.