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.
NE Watch Desk
