Over 19 lakh people have been excluded from the final National Register of Citizens or NRC - a list intended to identify legal residents and weed out illegal immigrants from Assam. 3.11 crore have been included in the crucial citizens' list that was published this morning, reports the ndtv.
Coming just weeks after the centre struck down Jammu and Kashmir's decades-old autonomy, the NRC too is expected to go down as one of the biggest moves in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second term. Security has been tightened in Assam, with tens of thousands of paramilitary personnel and police posted across the north-eastern state bordering Bangladesh.
The centre has said people whose names don't appear in the final NRC cannot be declared foreigners till all legal options are exhausted. Every person left out of the NRC can appeal to the Foreigners Tribunal, and the time limit to file the appeal has been extended from 60 to 120 days.
The Home Ministry said at least 1,000 tribunals will be set up in phases to hear disputes; 100 tribunals are already open and 200 more will be set up in the first week of September. If one loses the case in the tribunal, one can approach the high court and then the Supreme Court. No one will be put in detention centres until all legal options are exhausted, the government has said.
Security has been tightened and any gathering of more than four people at several public places is banned, especially at sensitive areas that have seen violence in the past, including main city Guwahati. Some 60,000 policemen have been posted and the centre has sent 20,000 additional paramilitary forces to Assam.
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