Guwahati, March 11: The Assam government hopes to have an up-to-date National Register of Citizens by 2009-end despite little progress so far in working out the modalities for enumerating and updating data.
Minister Bhumidhar Barman said during Zero Hour in the Assembly today that the government was proceeding with caution because it was a “sensitive issue”, but that did not mean the process would be delayed. The statement was in response to a question from Dhrupad Bargohain of the CPI.
Doubts about whether the state government would be able to complete the process anytime soon were first raised when it sought more time from Delhi to prepare the modalities for determination of citizenship.
One of the unfulfilled promises made by Delhi in its 1985 accord with the All Assam Students’ Union was that the citizens’ register would be updated. A tripartite meeting involving Delhi, Dispur and the AASU on May 5, 2005, decided to update the register with 1971 as the cut-off year. What it means is that names of all persons in the electoral rolls compiled till that year and their descendants will be included in the register.
The register was last updated in 1951.
Delhi sanctioned Rs 1.02 crore in October 2005 for the state government to begin updating the register, but the process has remained entangled in red tape.
Barman, who heads the Assam Accord implementation department, said the government consulted various organisations and parties on how to go about the task before forming a cabinet sub-committee. “Based on the decisions taken during the tripartite talks on May 5, 2005, work has begun. A cabinet sub-committee is working on the draft modalities and consulting various organisations again as this is a sensitive issue. We assure you that we will complete the process by next year. If there are any lapses, the Centre will step in.”
When Alaka Sarma of the AGP wanted to know exactly when the process of actually updating the register would start, the minister was back on the defensive.
“Going by the Citizenship Act of 1955, preparation of the NRC is the Centre’s responsibility. Therefore, the date shall be decided by the central government. The modalities have yet to be finalised by the Centre,” Barman said.
That the task will not be easy is clear from the official report on the availability of NRC/electoral rolls in 24 districts of the state. It states that only nine districts have a citizens’ register each.
Nine more districts have incomplete registers and six do not have any.
Similarly, the 1971 electoral rolls are available only in 14 districts and partly in 10 districts. The 1996 electoral rolls are available in 12 districts, not available in one and partly available in 11.
