Assam Firm on NRC Re-verification | 01 Sep 2020

Why in News

The Assam government remains firm on its demand of 10-20% re-verification of the nationality claims made by some of the people included in the final National Register of Citizens (NRC), published in 2019.

  • The state government’s plea for the re-verification is lying pending in Supreme Court (SC) for more than a year and the apex court is yet to stamp its approval on it.
  • The NRC 2019 is yet to be approved by the Registrar General of India.

National Register of Citizens

  • NRC is a register prepared in respect of each village, showing the houses or holdings in a serial order and indicating against each house or holding the number and names of persons staying therein.
  • The register was first prepared after the 1951 Census of India and since then it has not been updated until recently.
    • It has been updated in Assam only for now and the government plans to update it nationally as well.
  • Purpose: To separate “illegal” immigrants from “legitimate” residents.
  • Nodal Agency: Registrar General and Census Commissioner India.

Key Points

  • Background:
    • In 2018, the SC mentioned the prospect of sample re-verification in an order, saying that it could consider re-verifying 10% of the names included in the NRC.
    • In July 2019, the state government gave an affidavit in the SC seeking a re-verification of 20% included names in the districts bordering Bangladesh and 10% in the rest of the districts.
    • However, it was dismissed after the erstwhile coordinator of the NRC submitted that re-verification was already done.
  • Current Scenario:
    • The state government of Assam has provided the latest data regarding ‘foreigner’ detection in the state.
      • 1,36,149 people have been declared ‘foreigners’ by the state’s 100 functioning Foreigners’ Tribunals, whereas only 227 ‘foreigners’ have been deported from 13th March 2013 to 31st July 2020.
      • A total of 425 people are currently lodged in the six detention centres in the state.
    • There is a need for re-verification because people of Assam want a correct NRC.
    • Also, there has been a delay in issuing the rejection slips to the over 19 lakh excluded people so that they can move court to claim nationality.
      • Officials have cited the Covid-19 pandemic and the floods in the state as reasons for the delay.
      • The rejection slips would carry the reason of rejection, which would differ from person to person and based on the reason they would be able to challenge their exclusion in the Foreigners’ Tribunals.
        • Every individual, whose name does not figure in the final NRC, can represent his/her case in front of the Foreigners Tribunals.

Source: IE