Sonowal apprises Shah on NRC, seeks additional forces for Assam

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal apprised Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday about the current status of the NRC exercise in a meeting and sought additional central forces ahead of the publication of the final list on August 31.

The meeting took place hours after the Supreme Court ordered that the list of those excluded from the final NRC only be published online. A few days ago, the apex court had rejected the central and Assam governments' plea for sample re-verification to find out wrongful inclusions of names.

"I have apprised the home minister about the the ongoing process of the NRC and reviewed the prevailing situation in Assam. I have also requested the home minister to provide additional security forces," Sonowal told reporters.

"Shah assured all assistance from the Centre for the state to maintain law and order after the final NRC, which is to be published on August 31," a statement from the chief minister's office said.

The home minister also appealed to the people to maintain peace in the aftermath of the publication of the final NRC, it added.

The chief minister also appealed to the people of Assam to cooperate in the exercise of finalising the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Sonowal informed Shah that the people of Barak-Brahmaputra, hills and plains extended all cooperation during the ongoing NRC updation process, which is being carried out under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

During the meeting, Sonowal also apprised Shah about the damages caused by the recent wave of flood in the state and gave him a detailed account of the damages.

Shah assured Sonowal of all kinds of help and support in the state government's bid to rehabilitation and reconstruction work in flood-affected areas of the state.

Earlier in the day, a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman said like Aadhaar data, an appropriate regime should be enacted for securing the NRC data. It had earlier said the final Assam NRC would beTR published on or by August 31.

In July last year, over 40 lakh people were excluded from the complete draft of the NRC, which contained 2,89,83,677 eligible people out of a total 3,29,91,384 applicants.

An additional 1,02,462 people were included last month in the list of excluded persons, taking the total ineligible persons to 41,10,169 in the complete draft of the document, touted to be a proof of Assamese identity.

Assam, which had faced an influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC that was first prepared in 1951.