india

Updated: Feb 19, 2019 18:06 IST

The Supreme Court pulled up the Assam government on Tuesday over implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). A top court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said the BJP government is creating confusion in the final draft of NRC.

“Forty lakh people were not included in Assam NRC. It means they were prime facie foreigners but tribunals declared only 52,000 as foreign and of this, the government has deported only 162,” news agency ANI quoted CJI Gogoi as making the observation during a hearing on the register of citizens.

“How can people have confidence in Assam government? You are creating confusion,” agency quoted Gogoi as saying. Earlier, the Centre made its submission in the Supreme Court on the issue of NRC.

According to a PTI report, the Centre told the Supreme Court that 938 people are detained in six detention centres in Assam and 823 of them have been declared as foreigners by tribunals. The court had asked the Centre and Assam government on January 28 to provide details of functional detention centres in Assam and the foreigners detained in them during the last 10 years.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the government, told the court that over 27,000 foreigners have been pushed back at border points while attempting to enter India illegally.

The apex court further said that the problem of illegal migrants in Assam has been there for the last 50 years. “Why no steps taken to deport or repatriate them,” it said.

On February 12, the apex court had slammed the Centre over delay in the completion of the NRC process in Assam. It had angrily observed that “the entire effort of MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) seems to be to destroy NRC.”

The Centre also told the Supreme Court that it has allotted Rs 47 crore while Assam government has provided land for building a new detention centre with various facilities. It told the court that the new detention centre will be ready by August 31.

The apex court sought to know condition of detention centres saying PIL (public interest litigation), on which hearing is going on, alleges sub-human conditions at the detention centre.