GUWAHATI: The Assam government plans to move Supreme Court for a direction to the Centre to grant Aadhar cards to those left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The decision was taken following a meeting of the state government with representatives of 27 organisations from across the state on Thursday.
Biometrics of 2.7 million people were collected during the claims and objections phase of the NRC exercise. Of them, 1.9 million were left out of the complete draft NRC published in August 2019. Those left out of NRC meant to identify undocumented immigrants have been unable to get Aadhar cards as their biometrics are locked.
“These 2.7 million people, some of whom include those from indigenous communities, have been left out of government schemes like free rice or housing as they do not possess Aadhar cards. That is why the government and all 27 organisations agreed that they should get this important document,” said minister Pijush Hazarika.
Assam has called NRC faulty, saying it excluded many indigenous people. It has claimed that several of those whose citizenship was doubtful have been included. A petition in this regard is pending before the Supreme Court.
Another state minister Atul Bora said Aadhar is not a citizenship document. “Even after getting this document, if names of people get dropped from the final NRC [which is yet to be notified by the Register General of India], their Aadhar cards would also become invalid.”
Assam has twice sought an amendment to the standard operating procedure of NRC so that over left out of the document get their Aadhar cards.
