CRPF personnel patrol a road ahead of the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens ... Read More

GUWAHATI: Fear and uncertainty gripped Assam on Sunday, the eve of the release of the updated National Register of Citizens ( NRC ). The Centre has deployed 220 companies of armed police to maintain law and order. Prohibitory orders have been imposed in seven districts - Barpeta, Darrang, Dima Hasao, Sonitpur, Karimganj, Golaghat and Dhubri.

With the publication of the updated draft - which will feature names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens - Assam will, for the first time, get an estimate of the number of illegal migrants in the state.

Unlike the citizenship law in the rest of the country, the Assam Accord of 1985 provides that anyone who entered the state till midnight of March 24, 1971, would be treated as an Indian citizen. The first draft was released on December 31 last year, identifying 1.9 crore people as citizens out of the 3.29 crore who had applied.

The NRC, first prepared in 1951, is being updated by the Registrar General of India under the Supreme Court's supervision in an exercise that has spanned three years. The issue of illegal migration from Bangladesh has been a sensitive one, being at the centre of the state's political discourse for decades.

"People are cooperating with us. We have taken strict security measures and steps to keep trouble-makers at bay. We believe the situation will be peaceful," Assam Police DG Kuladhar Saikia said on Sunday. The NRC is the "biggest safeguard" for Assam and its people, assuring that genuine citizens who do not make it to the draft will be able to seek legal redress in multiple stages, right up to the Supreme Court, chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said.

"I am confident that the NRC, which has become the instrument to safeguard the interests of the greater Assamese society, will be able to create a positive atmosphere and will pave the way for realising the hopes and aspirations of genuine Indian citizens," Sonowal added.

"Both the Centre and the state government have been extending their support to the RGI for preparing an error-free NRC. PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Rajnath Singh have been emphasising on the importance of preparing an accurate citizen register, in which all genuine Indian citizens are included."

Representatives of parties across the political spectrum on Sunday made a joint appeal to people of the state to maintain peace in the aftermath of publication of the final draft.

