In reply to a query by MP Sushmita Dev, Govt failed to provide specific date of completion of the NRC in Assam

Dec. 02: The winter session of the Parliament has just began. Sushmita Dev who has recently entered the Rajya Sabha from the TMC put forth an unstarred question (No. 375) on the topic of National Registrar of Citizens (NRC) was was answered by Nityanand Rai, Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs on 1 December, 2021.

The question posed by Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev comprised of 5 parts. Her first question was as regards the total amount of money that has been spent on the NRC exercise in Assam. To this, Nityanand Rai replied, “The approved cost of the scheme of Updation of National Register of Citizens (NRC), 1951 in Assam is Rs.1602.66 crore, out of which Rs.1602.52 crore has been released to the Government of Assam.”

The next four questions asked by Ms Dev were:

(b) by when does Government plan on finishing the NRC process in Assam;
(c) whether Government is aware that a significant number of people are unable to get their Aadhaar enrolment done because their biometric details were locked during the claims and objections phase of the citizenship document update process;
(d) if so, by when Government has planned to release their biometric details; and
(e) what steps Government has taken to ensure the completion of the NRC process in Assam in a time-bound manner?

Replying to questions (b) to (e), Nityanand Rai, Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs stated, “On the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, the Complete Draft National Register of Citizens(NRC), Assam was published on 30th July, 2018 and the supplementary list of inclusions and the list of exclusions have been published on 31 August, 2019.”

The minister added, “As per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) approved by the Hon’ble Supreme Court for disposal of claims and objections on the draft NRC list, the biometric enrolment in respect of persons who were part of the claims and those objected upon were to be distinctive and separate IDs were to be generated. Only on publication of final NRC, such persons who are included in the NRC are to be given the usual Aadhaar number as applicable to legal residents in the country. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has directed the State Coordinator to enact an appropriate security regime on lines similar to the security regime provided for Aadhaar data and only thereafter the list of inclusions and exclusions shall be made available to the State Government, Central Government and Registrar General, India.”