Assam will deport ‘foreigners’ even if their names feature in NRC: Himanta

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that the state government’s current policy is to push back foreigners even if their names are found in the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The way the NRC was carried out in Assam leaves a lot of scope for doubt, and it cannot be the only document for determining a person’s citizenship, Sarma said.

The NRC, an official record of bonafide Indian citizens living in Assam, was updated under the supervision of the Supreme Court and released on August 31, 2019, leaving out more than 19 lakh applicants. However, it has not been notified by the Registrar General of India, leaving the controversial document without any official validity.

”Many people had entered their names in the NRC by using unfair means. So we have adopted the policy of pushing back (foreigners) if the authorities are absolutely convinced that the persons concerned are foreigners,” the CM said on the sidelines of a programme in Darrang on Wednesday.

A large number of people have been picked up from across Assam since last month on suspicion of being doubtful citizens, as part of a nationwide drive, and many of them were pushed back to Bangladesh. Some of them returned after the neighbouring nation refused to accept them as their citizens.

”Personally, I am not convinced that the presence of a name in the NRC alone is enough to determine that someone is not an illegal migrant,” he said.

Asked whether a section of officials did not carry out the NRC exercise with due diligence, Sarma said that is a possibility.

Sarma alleged that social activist and author Harsh Mander had camped in Assam for two years, and sent some youths from the state to America and England for education and encouraged them to manipulate the NRC.

“These matters came to my knowledge after I became the chief minister,” he said.

Sarma, speaking on detection and deportation of foreigners, during a special assembly session on June 9, had said the state government will implement the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, for the purpose, which allows the district commissioners to declare illegal immigrants and evict them.