K’taka talks NRC as Bommai says govt studying law

Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday said Karnataka is mulling introducing the National Registry of Citizens (NRC), which was recently implemented in Assam, to identify illegal migrants.

“There’s a very big talk going on about implementing NRC across India,” Bommai told reporters. “Karnataka is a state where a lot of people come from across the border and settle down. There are a lot of issues here. Therefore, we’re collecting all the information. We will discuss with the Union Home Minister and then go ahead.”

Karnataka’s willingness to implement the NRC comes days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the law will be implemented across India to identify illegal immigrants who will be deported.

While it was in the Opposition, the BJP raised a hue and cry claiming that thousands of Bangladeshi migrants have settled in Bengaluru illegally. BJP’s Mahadevapura legislator Aravind Limbavali has been demanding NRC-like measures in his constituency for some years now.

Already, Bommai has held two meetings on rolling out NRC. “I’ve asked senior officials to study the law. In Bengaluru and other big cities, foreigners have come, they indulge in crime, and some of them have been arrested as well. We will take a decision (on NRC) this week,” he told reporters in Haveri on Wednesday.

In July 2019, the Centre, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, said that a detention centre for illegal immigrants will come up in Bengaluru.

“The government of Karnataka has informed that they are in the process of establishing detention or holding centre. The required police personnel and other infrastructure facilities have been allocated for this purpose and necessary work is under progress,” Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told Bangalore Central MP PC Mohan in his reply.

The NRC, first implemented in Assam, seeks to verify the citizenship status of all those residing in India. In Assam, over 19 lakh persons were excluded from the final NRC list.