No plan to drop NRC exercise: Home Minister

There is no question of dropping plans to implement the National Registry of Citizens (NRC) in the state, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said Tuesday.

Bommai was responding to reports over confusions on whether or not Karnataka wanted to implement the NRC, especially after some reports suggested that the government did not want to.

“There’s no question of dropping NRC,” Bommai told reporters. “The policy of NRC will be decided by the Centre. What we’re doing now is collecting necessary data, which will be sent to the Union Home Ministry. The Union Home Minister (Amit Shah) will decide,” he said.

Bommai has already ordered the police to start collecting data on those living in the state illegally, without documents or with fake documents. Data will be collected police station-wise.

Asked about the recent explosion at the Hubballi railway station, Bommai said the state police were working with their counterparts in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. “No one has been arrested, but a detailed investigation is going on. I can’t disclose anything till after the investigation is complete.”