Centre backs Assam government's plea for re-verification of NRC applications

The Centre is in favour of re-verification of NRC applications for which the Assam government had filed a petition in the Supreme Court last year.

Read | Assam government still wants 're-verification' of NRC applicants, NGO claims 80 lakh foreigners included

Home minister Amit Shah, in a meeting with Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and senior officials on Sunday told the state government that the Centre would also submit a petition in the apex court in the next hearing of the petitions related to the NRC with the same plea.

"The Home Minister told the Chief Minister that the Centre will back Assam's plea for re-verification of 20% applications in the districts bordering Bangladesh and 10% applications in others. The Centre will submit its stand to the Supreme Court in the next hearing," Assam minister and BJP's strategist in the Northeast, Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters after the meeting in New Delhi.

Also Read | A year after Assam's NRC final list, citizenship crisis of over 19 lakh people lingers on

A total of 3.29 crore people had applied for inclusion of their names in the NRC, which is being updated with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date to "detect foreigners" in Assam. Over 19.06 lakh applicants were, however, left out of the final list leaving them to grapple with "citizenship crisis."

Soon after the final list of the updated NRC was released on August 31 last year, Sarma said the NRC list would not solve the state's foreigner problem as many "foreigners" made it to the list while genuine citizens left out.

The rejected applicants were supposed to submit claims in foreigner tribunals with documents in favour of their Indian citizenship within 120 days after receiving a rejection slip from the NRC office to clear their names. But the rejection slips have not been issued even after more than one year due to the stalemate over the re-verification issue.

BJP had earlier publicly supported the NRC draft list (in which over 40 lakh left out) but sources said it was criticising the final list as most of those left out of it were Hindus, its major vote bank.