New Delhi: Opposition parties on Tuesday said the exclusion of 40 lakh people from the draft National Register of Citizens in Assam was a "human rights" issue as the Rajya Sabha debated the deletion of names of potential illegal immigrants amid three adjournments and protests.

An MP from Andhra Pradesh sought to offer a solution, suggesting that resident status be granted to those losing citizenship.

The draft NRC, whose release on Monday was part of an exercise to weed out illegal immigrants, had 2.89 crore names out of 3.29 crore applicants, a difference of 40 lakh.

When the House started its business on Tuesday, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said Union home minister Rajnath Singh would make a statement on the NRC issue. But Trinamul Congress leaders protested the deletions, leading to a brief adjournment.

At noon, when Rajnath and BJP president Amit Shah were both present, the House agreed to suspend Question Hour for discussions on the draft list.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, the leader of the Opposition in Parliament's upper House, claimed the 40 lakh not on the list were adults and if their family members were counted, the number would be around two crore.

Biswajit Daimary, leader of the Assam-based Bodoland People's Front, however told the House that the list included children too.

Azad said the onus of producing evidence for inclusion in the register lay with the government and urged the Centre to provide legal assistance to people with grievances. "This is an issue of human rights. This should not be used for vote-bank politics," he said.

YSR Congress MP Vijayasai Reddy said those found to be illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay on as residents. "Let us assume that some of them are foreign nationals. (But) because they have been staying for the last 40-50 years, they can be given the status of residents. Their future generations should get citizenship," Reddy said, suggesting a solution to the controversy.

BJD leader Prasanna Acharya urged the government to address the mistakes in the deletion of names but added that national security should not be compromised, as the Odisha-based party sought to maintain a balance between the BJP and the Opposition.

Trinamul's Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, whose party had moved a notice for discussions, said the names of several former parliamentarians, a deputy Speaker and government employees had been excluded from the final draft.

Roy said there were 2.4 lakh doubtful voters in Assam as of December 2017 and, under no circumstances, could the list of doubtful people be increased to 40 lakh. "India is a signatory to human rights conventions. Deletion of names is violation of human rights of those people," Roy said.

CPM leader T.K. Rangarajan said the deletions were "illegal", while the Rashtriya Janata Dal's Manoj Jha slammed what he called a heartless bureaucratic exercise that had created a humanitarian crisis.

Nominated member Swapan Dasgupta cautioned against underestimating the problem of illegal immigrants in Assam, saying the NRC has been a long-standing demand and hundreds of people had died in protests for such a register.

Akali Dal leader S.S. Dhindsa, whose party is an ally of the BJP, said the government needs to make the minorities feel at home.