Law and order situation reviewed ahead of NRC draft

Senior Assam government officials today reviewed the law and order situation of four districts ahead of the publication of the next draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) slated for the month end, officials said.

The officials, who were led by Chief Secretary T Y Das and Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia, reviewed the law and order and internal security situation of the central Assam districts of Nagaon, Morigaon, Hojai and the hill district of West Karbi Anglong, a police spokesman said here today.

This is the fourth meeting of the officials, who will visit all the districts of Assam before the publication of the draft NRC, the officials said.

Besides the Chief Secretary and DGP, the team of officials include the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Alok Kumar, Principal Secretary (Home) L Changson, Special DGP(SB) Pallab Bhattacharya, ADGP (Security) Harmeet Singh and IGP(Law and Order) Deepak Kumar, an official release said.

The deputy commissioners, superintendents of police and other senior police officials, army and central paramilitary forces were present in the meeting which discussed various issues related to the NRC updation.

The importance of constant interaction with the people to allay their apprehension, facilities available in respect of claims and objections for which an exhaustive awareness programme would be launched and other related issues were discussed in the meeting, the release added.

The updation work of the NRC was completed on May 31 but the release of the draft, which is scheduled on June 30 is likely to be delayed due to devastating flood situation in Barak Valley, the officials said.

NRC State coordinator Prateek Hajela has filed a petition before the Supreme Court, under whose supervision the NRC is being updated, asking for more time for the completion of the draft as work on it was affected by the devastating flood.

The NRC of 1951 is being updated to identify illegal migrants in the state in accordance with the tripartite agreement between the state and central governments and All Assam Students Union which was arrived at in 2005 to implement the Assam Accord of 1985.

The first draft of the NRC, which was published in the midnight of December 31, 2017 had listed 19 million people out of the 32.9 million applicants as legal Indian citizens.

The DGP had earlier said that the police was closely monitoring the situation and holding high level meetings and if the situation demands it would seek additional forces from the Centre before the draft release.