Guwahati: Former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, a signatory to the 1985 Assam Accord, on Tuesday called for pan-India update of the 1951 National Register of Citizens and a repatriation deal between India and Bangladesh at the earliest to curb influx.

Addressing a news conference on behalf of the Asom Andolan Sangrami Mancha, a platform of Assam Agitation veterans, here in the morning, Mahanta also proposed issuing of photo-identity cards after the NRC update to check influx.

"It is equally important to have a treaty between India and Bangladesh for smooth repatriation of Bangladeshis illegally staying in India," Mahanta said, reacting to the publication of the complete updated draft NRC which has the names of 40.07 lakh people, of the total 3,29,91,384 applicants, missing from the list.

"We welcome the draft NRC and thank the Supreme Court and the state government employees for their role in the update. But the process is not over yet and we need to ensure genuine Indian citizens are not left out of the register. People want the correct NRC," Mahanta said, recalling the roles of the AASU and the AGP, both of which he led, in the update of the register to weed out foreigners illegally staying in Assam.

The conference was also attended by Biraj Sarma, another signatory to the Assam Accord. Both Mahanta and Das are leaders of the Mancha.

The 1951 NRC update is being updated only in Assam under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

Governor Jagdish Mukhi had also said on Monday that a pan-India NRC was a must as it would allow every state to know who its citizens are and who are not and also to check influx. He said having an updated NRC in one state was not sufficient because those declared foreigners in Assam would shift to another state to escape detection. "Every state should keep an NRC and update it every 10 years. It will be a real achievement for the country...to know the number of its citizens and non-citizens," Mukhi had said, in his reaction to the NRC update under way in Assam.

Mahanta also said he was opposed to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, as it is against the Assam Accord. The Accord sets March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for detection and deportation of foreigners while the bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who fled religious persecution and entered India till December 31, 2014.

"We are opposed to the bill. We will hold a seminar and protest on the bill in Delhi next week," Mahanta said.