Assam seeks extension of NRC deadline

Assam government has submitted a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the extension of deadline for submitting claims and objections on National Register of Citizens (NRC) by another one month.

This comes on a day Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), an ally of the BJP-led state government wrote a letter to BJP chief Amit Shah saying NRC and the historic Assam Accord would be meaningless if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 is passed in the Parliament. The party said it would be compelled to 'repudiate' the alliance if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 is introduced in the Parliament.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday said a petition has recently been submitted in the Supreme Court as the government wanted an error-free NRC. "Since making Assam a foreigner-free state is our slogan, we must ensure that not a single foreigner makes it to the NRC and no genuine citizen is left out of it. A correct NRC will be the most important document to protect the identity of the Assamese community," Sonowal said at a government function organised here to pay tribute to 860 Assamese people, who had died during the historic Assam Agitation (1979-1985) or the anti-foreigner movement. The movement had seen signing of Assam Accord in 1985, which agreed to detect, delete and deport the illegal migrants from Assam.

The apex court, which is monitoring the exercise aimed at segregating Indian citizens from illegal migrants living in Assam with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date, had earlier fixed December 15 as the date for submitting claims and objections.

But only nine lakh of the 40.07 lakh applicants, who found their names missing in the draft NRC, had filed claims for inclusion of their names in the final NRC. Similarly, the NRC office has received less than 200 objections against the inclusion of 'illegal migrants' in the draft NRC. This led many organisations seek extension of deadline for submitting claims and objections.

A total of 3.29 crore applicants had applied for NRC.

Sources said the Supreme Court is likely to pronounce its order regarding extension of the deadline in its next hearing.

Sonowal said implementation of Assam Accord, which involved having an error-free NRC, sealing the unfenced stretches of India-Bangladesh border and having constitutional safeguards for indigenous Assamese, was the BJP-led state government's commitment.