Assam: People not part of draft NRC won’t be declared foreigners, says MHA

 | 

GUWAHATI, July 24, 2018: Days before the publication of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, the Union Home ministry Monday said those not part of the draft will not be automatically declared foreigners. People who are not named in the draft will be given a month's time to file claims and objections, besides subsequent judicial recourse, the ministry said.

For More Assam News Click Here

The government expects the Registrar General of India (RGI), monitoring the NRC upgradation, to complete the process of publishing the final NRC by August 31.

The NRC, to be published on July 30, is only a draft and after it is published, adequate opportunities for filing claims and objections will be available to those whose names are excluded from it, a home ministry official said.

"All claims and objections will be duly examined. The NRC authorities will give a one-month window, when all objections and complaints will be examined after giving a proper hearing to the complainants. Only thereafter, the final NRC will be published," the official said.

Exclusion from the final NRC does not mean automatic declaration of anyone as a foreigner, and once the final document is published, if someone is dissatisfied, he or she can always go to a foreigners' tribunal in the state, he added. There are around 300 foreigners' tribunals in the state.

The official said no one should have any apprehension about the exercise, adding that adequate central paramilitary forces were dispatched to Assam to assist the state administration to deal with any law-and-order situation.

On Sunday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said there was no need to panic and all bona fide Indians will be given adequate opportunities to prove their citizenship. He also said the NRC was being updated in accordance with the "Assam Accord" signed on August 15, 1985, and the process was being carried out as per the directions of the Supreme Court.

Source: The Indian Express

Featured image: Representation