Showing its commitment towards solving the illegal immigrant issue, the Assam Government will take efforts and steps to remove names of those applicants who had enrolled in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) using fraudulent means, said Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Amid event to mark Swahid Diwas or Martyrs Day to commemorate the deaths of 800 plus people during the Assam Agitation between 1979 and 1985 against illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh, the Assam CM announced the move on Sunday.
“We are preparing a big plan to find out details of those who entered their names in the NRC using forgery and try and remove them from the list. We have started discussing this with various experts,” said CM Himanta without divulging further details.
Citing the Clause 6, the CM highlighted the State Government has already taken measures to protect land rights of the indigenous population and almost 100 per cent of all government jobs in Assam are given to local residents.
Clause 6, in the Assam Accord signed in 1985, assures constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards for Assamese people.
Updating of the 1951 NRC for Assam was done under directions of the Supreme Court in order to find out illegal citizens, who had entered the State after March 25, 1971.
The final NRC list published in August 2019 had left out 1.9 million of the 33 million applicants on suspicion of their claims as Indian citizens.
Assam’s BJP-led Government has rejected the final NRC on the basis of incorrect data and presence of many anomalies where it has left out eligible persons and included illegal immigrants.
It is yet to be notified by Registrar General of India (RGI).
The Assam Government has since approached the Supreme Court seeking a review of the entire exercise. Many local organisations in Assam have supported the move by the Himanta Biswa Sarma Government. Subsequently, petitions regarding the matter are pending before the top court.
In its report released in December last year, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India had detected large scale anomalies in updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam.
The CAG recommended fixing responsibility of the former state coordinator of NRC, Prateek Hajela, and action in a time bound manner for the excess, irregular and inadmissible payment made to the vendor.
Comments