Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government has approved the rule which will reject Aadhaar card applications if the applicant or the family had not applied to be part of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Sarma said that the state Cabinet, that met on December 11, has approved the proposal to issue a standard operating protocol (SOP) for issuing Aadhaar cards in future.
Sarma had in September announced the decision to link Aadhaar cards with NRC applications in the state. The new rule, now approved, makes it mandatory for applicants to furnish their NRC application number, which had been provided to them while applying in 2015.
Sarma said Assam government would begin verification of applicants for Aadhaar cards and reject applicants who have not applied for NRC. He said after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the General Administration Department of Assam government would be the nodal agency for its implementation of the new rules.
“After the initial application, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will send it to the state government for verification. The local Circle Officer (CO) will first check if the applicant or his parents or family had applied for inclusion in the NRC,” Sarma was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
If there was no application for the NRC, then the Aadhaar request will be immediately rejected and a report will be submitted to the Centre accordingly, the chief minister said.
“If it is found that there was an application for NRC, the CO will go for field-level verification as per Supreme Court directives. After the officer is fully convinced, the Aadhaar will be approved,” he added.
Infiltration concerns from Bangladesh
Sarma said infiltration concerns from Bangladesh were behind the state government’s decision to toughen Aadhaar norms.
“Scores of infiltrators have been nabbed by Assam Police, Tripura Police and BSF in the last two months. That is why infiltration from Bangladesh is a concern for us. We need to strengthen our system and that is why we decided to toughen the Aadhaar card mechanism,” Sarma said.
The new directive would not be applicable to the central government employees, who were working in other states and did not apply for the NRC.
The process of updating the NRC, which is currently abandoned after the publication of a “final NRC” in 2019, had begun in 2015. The exercise is aimed at determining whether or not an applicant had entered the state before March 24, 1971.
Those who were found to have entered Assam before that date were to be included in the NRC, and be recognised as citizens. Those who were excluded from the NRC were to face a trial in the state’s Foreigner Tribunal system.
The final NRC was released on August 31, 2019 by excluding 19,06,657 persons. A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.
If there was no application for the NRC, then the Aadhaar request will be immediately rejected.
