BackHeavy security in Assam ahead of National Register of Citizens release
Union home ministry has deployed over 200 companies of paramilitary forces, Assam has mobilized 250 companies of state police to prevent unrest after the release of the National Register of Citizens
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New Delhi: As many as 45,000 security personnel have been deployed in Assam ahead of the release of the first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) at midnight on 31 December to identify illegal immigrants.
While the Union home ministry has deployed more than 200 companies of paramilitary forces, the state has mobilized 250 companies of state police to prevent unrest after the release of the NRC.
“The process has been carried out very systematically and all names have been included or excluded based on legacy documents provided," said a central government official familiar with the development. “People should remain calm and not jump to conclusions about being deported, if their name is not there in the first draft. The matter will be duly examined."
The official declined to be identified.
Experts, however, said that the centre is sensing trouble and it will be tough to implement the project given that more than one country is involved.
“A large number of people are already in detention centres. The problem will deepen further when India tries to deport people and Bangladesh will not take them back. So these people will be forced into detention centres, which will not be able to go beyond a certain capacity. This is implausible in the long run," said Kishalay Bhattacharjee, author and an expert on northeastern affairs.
Also Read: Why unresolved questions on identity threaten Assam’s economic transformation
A second central government official said that the move was imperative given the influx of Rohingya refugees and the porous Indo-Bangladesh border.
The Border Security Force (BSF), which mans the international border with Bangladesh, identified 140 vulnerable points along the border in October.
In April 2017, the Assam state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised to identify and expel all illegal immigrants from Assam, while promising to extend protection to the Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and the Scheduled Caste people from Bangladesh.
In a July interview, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that illegal immigration in Assam had become a big problem and NRC would be an indicator of “those who are from the country and how many are not."
“Section 14A(2) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 provides for maintenance of National Register of Indian Citizens by the Central government. For the purpose, the Central government has to carry out throughout the country a house-to-house enumeration for collection of specified particulars relating to each family and individual, residing in a local area including the Citizenship status," the Union home ministry told the Lok Sabha on 19 December in response to a question on the NRC project in Assam.
The ministry also added that while a house-to-house enumeration had been carried out in 2010 under Rule 4 of the Citizenship (Citizens Registration and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003, to prepare the population register, it was updated in 2015-16 except in Assam and Meghalaya.
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