The National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam will be published on August 31 in keeping with Supreme Court directions, but the Centre can consider corrective measures, including legislation, to set right wrongful inclusions and exclusions, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has said.
On Monday, Sonowal hinted that at all options, including those in the legislative domain, might be considered to deal with wrongful exclusion of genuine citizens or wrongful inclusion of foreigners in the NRC. However, such corrective measures, if warranted, will be taken only after NRC is published within the SC-mandated deadline.
Asked if any legislative measures would be taken to address alleged wrongful inclusions and exclusions, Sonowal, who was at the home ministry to attend a meeting on NRC chaired by home minister Amit Shah, said: ”nce NRC is published on 31st August, we being a democracy have the right to do so – questions can be raised (on NRC process). If corrective steps are warranted in the future, we will consider the same”
The SC has been cold to a plea by the Centre and Assam government seeking re-verification of 20% of draft NRC data in districts bordering Bangladesh and 10% in remaining districts. The plea claimed exclusion of Indian citizens and inclusion of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the draft had come to notice.
Any legislative steps taken after 31st August would have to be through the ordinance route, since Parliament is not in session. There is no monsoon session of Parliament in view of the extended first session of the new Lok Sabha and Parliament will now meet only in November. Based on a report submitted to it by NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela, stating that around 80 lakh people (amounting to 27% of the claims) had been subject to reverification already, the SC did not favour a fresh verification.
Sonowal expressed confidence that NRC publication on August 31 would be a peaceful exercise. “When draft NRC and final NRC were published earlier, many people had raised questions and expressed apprehensions.
He said, But people of Assam maintained calm and cooperated in peaceful publishing of draft NRC.” Home minister Amit Shah has offered all help, including additional forces needed (at the time of publication).
In his speech on Independence Day in Assam, Sonowal said the Assam government was committed to protecting all genuine citizens.
He said, ”We hope that NRC will be a historic document that does not include names of any foreigner and exclude any genuine Indian citizen.”
In July last year, over 40 lakh people were excluded from the draft NRC, which contained 2.89 crore eligible people out of a total 3.29 crore applicants. An additional 1.02 lakh people were included last month in the list of excluded persons, taking the total ineligible persons to 41 lakh.
NRC will be published in Assam on August 31
