Defending the Centre's move to implement National Population Register (NPR), Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that it is being updated so that rightful people could get the benefits of government welfare schemes.

Replying to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to President's address, Modi said that the NPR was started during the Congress regime in 2010, which was later updated in 2015. Further explaining his position on NPR, Modi said that it was a "usual administrative" process which was being politicised by the opposition parties.

"They are opposing (NPR) for narrow and frivolous political narrative. This is anti-poor," Modi said.

"We have a record of your NPR, no citizen was persecuted based on that record of NPR," he added, citing then home minister Chidambaram's statement during the UPA 2 regime urging citizens to enroll for the exercise.

Many Critics argue that NPR is a precursor to NRC. The Union government approved the updation of the National Population Register (NPR) and allotted Rs 3,941.35 crore for it. The NPR aims to create an identity database of all the "usual residents" of the country.

The exercise will commence from April this year and will be conducted in all the states apart from Assam. The NPR will contain demographic and biometric details of the residents.

Attacking the opposition yet again on the issue of CAA, Modi said that the Congress and other opposition parties were spreading "misinformation" about the law. "Is it ok to misguide and misinform the nation? Can anybody be a part of a campaign that does this? The path being taken on CAA by many Opposition parties is very unfortunate," he said.

He also spoke about digital transactions, saying, "Today, digital transactions are being seen the most in smaller cities and Tier-2, Tier-3 cities are moving forward as far as the construction of modern infrastructure is concerned."

Speaking about the reservation policy in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, Modi said, "For the first time in decades, people of Jammu and Kashmir got benefits of reservation. There were BDC polls, RERA came into being there. For the first time, Jammu and Kashmir got a comprehensive start-up, trade and logistics policy. Anti-corruption bureau was set up there."

He also stated that even though the target of five trillion dollar economy is ambitious, the country has to "think big and think ahead" instead of resorting to "pessimism and gloom."

The Prime Minister also hailed the Bru agreement in his Rajya Sabha address. "Plight of the Bru refugees was pitiable. Yet, the party which ruled most parts of the Northeast for decades and the party that ruled Tripura for decades did nothing about this problem. It was our Government that had the honour of solving this major problem," he said.