29 ASSAM
NATIONAL REGISTER OF CITIZENS
On Monday, Assam released
the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC),
seven months after it released the first draft on 1 January 2018, which
included 1.9 crore names out of a total applicant pool of 3.29 crore. Monday’s
list however, left our 40.07 lakh people wherein 2.89 crore people were found
eligible out of 3.29 crore applicants.
What is the NRC?
During the census of 1951, a national citizen register
was created that contained the details of every person by village. The data
included name, age, father’s/husband’s name, houses or holdings belonging to
them, means of livelihood and so on. These registers covered every person
enumerated during census of 1951.
For a person’s name to be included in the updated NRC
list of 2018, he/ she will have to furnish:
■
Existence of name in the legacy data: The legacy data is the collective
list of the NRC data of 1951 and the electoral rolls up to midnight of 24 March
1971. This is the cutoff date in the Assam Accord of 1985, agreed upon by the
Centre, the state and the All Assam Students’ Union, at the end of a six-year
movement against migration from Bangladesh.
■ Proving
linkage with the person whose name appears in the legacy data.
How is Assam different? Why a separate National
Register of Citizens?
This is because of a history of migration. During
British rule, Assam was merged with Bengal Presidency for administrative
purpose. From 1826 to 1947, the British continuously brought migrant workers to
Assam for cheap labour in tea plantations. Two major waves of migration came
after British rule — first after Partition, from East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh), and then in the aftermath of the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971.
This eventually led to an agitation during 1979-85, led by the All Assam
Students’ Union. It culminated in the 1985 Assam Accord signed with the Rajiv Gandhi government,
under which illegal migrants were to be identified and deported. Clause 6A was
inserted in the Citizenship Act with special provisions for Assam.
Why is the NRC being updated now?
Updating the NRC has been a decades-old demand, with various
modalities and cut-off dates suggested over the years and many rounds of talks
held.
Things began moving after a May 5, 2005, tripartite meeting
among the Centre, Assam government and All Assam Students' Union. Chaired by
then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the meeting decided to update the NRC.
The Supreme Court got involved in 2009 after an NGO, Assam
Public Works, filed a writ petition for the deletion of illegal migrants' names
from voter lists in Assam.
Pilot projects for updating the NRC started in two blocks (in
Kamrup and Barpeta districts) in June 2010 but were stopped the following month
because of law-and-order problems. In July 2011, the state government set up a
cabinet subcommittee to simplify the procedure.
In May 2013, the apex court directed the Centre to finalise the
modalities by July 16, 2013. In 2014, the court directed the government to
resume updating the NRC and has since been monitoring the process.
Distribution and receipt of filled-in NRC application forms
began in 2015. Acceptance of applications ended on August 31, 2015. The
verification process started on September 1, 2015.
How is verification carried out?
The updating process started in May 2015 and ended on
31 August 2015. A total of 3.29 crore people applied through 68.31 lakh
applications. The process of verification involved house-to-house field
verification, determination of authenticity of documents, family tree
investigations in order to rule out bogus claims of parenthood and linkages and
separate hearings for married women.
Who all have been left out?
Out of the 40.07 lakh applicants who have been left
out of the final draft NRC released, on Monday, 2.48 lakh applicants have been
kept on hold including the D-Voters (doubtful voters who have been
disenfranchised on account of failure to prove citizenship), descendants of
D-voters and persons whose cases are pending before the foreigners tribunal.
The state however, has not revealed the reason for keeping others on hold.
What next?
The process of filing claims and objections will start
on 30 August, during which people whose names have been left out of the NRC
Assam, can once again appeal to have their case reconsidered. Those left out
are not yet being labelled as “foreigners” or being sent to detention centres.
However, only those applicants who had submitted their applications in 2015
will be considered.
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