Guwahati: A total of 20,578 doubtful or D-voters have been declared foreigners and 66,986 were found to be Indian citizens by courts in Assam, the state government told the Assembly on Monday.

Replying to a question by Abdul Khaleque of the Congress, parliamentary affairs minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said at present there are 1,25,333 D-voters.

D-voters are those who have been disenfranchised during electoral roll revision for their alleged lack of proper citizenship credentials and their cases are pending with the tribunals.

The Election Commission, during an intensive revision of electoral rolls in 1997, had ordered that the letter D be written against names of those voters who failed to provide their citizenship proof and their cases were referred to the foreigners tribunals in the state. The D-voters have been barred from casting votes since then.

Patowary said so far, 2,44,144 D-voters were referred to the tribunals and of them, 1,31,034 cases have been disposed of. He added that 52 D-voters, declared foreigners by the tribunals, are lodged in detention camps, while some have moved the high court against the tribunal order and some are absconding.

"So far, 29,663 declared foreigners were pushed back and 75 were deported to Bangladesh," Patowary said.

On the National Register of Citizens update process, Patowary said 18,02,135 documents are yet to be verified.

A part of a draft NRC containing 1.9 crore names of a total of 3.29 crore applicants, was published on the midnight on December 31, 2017. Another draft will be published after the papers submitted by the remaining applicants are verified.