Assam discontinues services of 200 members of FTs appointed to clear NRC claims

With the Registrar General of India yet to notify the Assam's updated National Register of Citizens (NRC), the state government has decided to discontinue services of 200 additional members of Foreigner Tribunals appointed to clear claims of those left out of the NRC.

An order issued by the Assam home department on Friday stated, "Utilisation of services of the members along with 2,000 posts of ministerial staff in 200 appellate Foreigner Tribunals will be considered as and when the NRC gets notified." Services of the members and the ministerial staff would discontinue from October 23, it said. The order said that this was following the approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday.

The additional FT members were appointed in 2019 to clear the claims to be filed by those left out of the updated NRC. Assam at present has 100 FTs.

More than 19.06 lakh people were left out of the updated NRC, who were to be given an option to move the FTs to prove their Indian citizenship with documents (pre-1971). But the delay in issuance of a "rejection slip" to each of the excluded persons has cast uncertainty over the exercise. The NRC exercise, which cost more than Rs 1,600 cr, was paused mainly after the BJP-led government refused to accept the "final list" and moved the Supreme Court to seek re-verification of the list in view of "large scale irregularities" allowing "people of suspect nationality" be counted as Indians.

Several other organisations including the All Assam Students Union have also sought a re-verification of the NRC exercise. The NRC in Assam was updated with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date in order to segregate "foreigners" from Indian citizens to solve the state's long problem of "illegal migration" from neighbouring Bangladesh.