Ending the confusion over the inclusion of Hindu Bangladeshis into the National Register of Citizens (NRC), authorities updating the NRC in Assam said that they have not received any instruction from the Supreme Court to enter the names of Hindu Bangladeshis, who had entered India due to religious persecution, into the NRC.
State Coordinator of the NRC, Pratik Hajela said this on Monday while addressing a Press conference and said that the Supreme Court order in this regard only instructed not to deport the Hindu Bangladeshis but there is no instruction to include their names in the updated NRC.
The process of the updation of the NRC necessitated as there have been reports of lakhs of Bangladeshis entering the State of Assam illegally and living in the state, affecting state's demography. Assam had also witnessed a mass movement between 1979 to 1985 demanding detection and deportation of the Bangladeshis.
After the Central Government last year issued a circular allowing the minority communities from Bangladesh’ who enter India due to religious persecution, it led to an apprehension among a section of people in Assam that the names of these Bangladeshis, particularly the Hindu Bangladeshis will be included in the updated NRC.
The updation of the NRC would also be beneficial for lakhs of people who have doubtful citizenship credentials, known as 'D' voters and hence not allowed to cast their votes. According of official statistics, there are 1,36,448 'D' voters in Assam.
Hajela said that the 'D' voters have to apply for inclusion of their names in the NRC but those will be included only after Foreigners' Tribunals, where their cases are pending, declare them as Indian citizens and not as foreigners.
Hajela said that they have so far received 6.63 crore documents to verify the citizenship status of individual applicants.
“It's a herculean task to verify such a huge number of documents. However, we are doing as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court in this regard. We have also received forged documents from different individuals to prove their Indian citizenship and we have registered 137 cases so far against individuals for submitting forged or fake documents,” he said adding that the task will be completed as per the date specified by the Supreme Court in future.