'No plan to conduct NRC across country on religious lines,' says government

New Delhi: The government said on Wednesday that there was no plan to conduct the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise across the country on religious lines.

Minister of State for Home, Nityanand Rai, gave the information in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

He was responding to a question of Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Ahamed Hassan who had asked if the government had decided to conduct National Register of Citizens exercise across the country on religious lines.

"No," Rai said in his reply.

"Does not arise" the minister said to Hassan's subsequent question about the amount allocated for planning NRC.

The TMC member also sought to know if the government had identified sites for detention centres across the country for the exercise and if so, the state-wise detention centres to be constructed in the next five years.

The minister said in his reply that detention centres "are established by States/UT Administrations as per requirement".