No NRC, no Aadhar card: In an effort to link the Aadhaar Card with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Assam government on Wednesday decided that all applications for the unique identity card will be rejected if the applicant or their family members had not applied for the NRC.
Addressing a press conference, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the decision was taken during a cabinet meeting in view of an infiltration attempt by citizens of trouble-hit Bangladesh.
'Infiltration from Bangladesh is a concern'
"Scores of infiltrators have been nabbed by Assam Police, Tripura Police and BSF in the last two months. That is why infiltration from Bangladesh is a concern for us. We need to strengthen our system and that is why we decided to toughen the Aadhaar Card mechanism," he added.
Sarma said that henceforth, the General Administration Department of the state government will serve as the nodal agency responsible for conducting the verification of Aadhaar applicants, with one Additional District Commissioner appointed as the designated official in each district.
"After the initial application, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will send it to the state government for verification. The local Circle Officer (CO) will first check if the applicant or his parents or family had applied for inclusion in the NRC," he added.
'No application for NRC, then no Aadhaar'
The CM said that if there was no application for the NRC, then the Aadhaar request will be immediately rejected and a report would be submitted to the Centre accordingly. "If it is found that there was an application for NRC, the CO will go for field-level verification as per Supreme Court directives. After the officer is fully convinced, the Aadhaar will be approved," he added.
Sarma, however, said this new directive would not be applicable to the central government employees, who were working in other states and did not apply for the NRC. "In this way, we will enforce a strict mechanism to strengthen our Aadhaar issuance system so that no doubtful people can get this identity card," he added.
The final NRC released on August 31, 2019, excluded 19,06,657 applicants. Out of a total of 3,30,27,661 applicants, 3,11,21,004 names were included.
(With PTI inputs)
