Why in News ?
After the publication of the complete National Register of Citizens (NRC), the fate of 19,06,657 people excluded from the updated list in Assam continues to hang in the balance. National Register of Citizen Excluded people still struggling to get the slip of reason exclusion.
What is NRC ?
It is the official record of those who are legal Indian citizens. It was applicable only to Assam to keep its ethnic uniqueness unaltered. But in November 2020 Government extended to the entire country.
The aim of the register is to bring a legislation that will enable the government to identify illegal immigrants and infiltrates for detaining them to where they came from.
The register was first prepared after the 1951 Census of India and since then it has not been updated until recently.
Brief History of Assam NRC
- Period from 1947-1971
- After the partition in 1947 there was no restriction in the movement of People from Pakistan to India and vice versa.
- On March 1951 Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act came into force to curb the inflow from East Pakistan to Assam and first ever NRC was published in Assam based on Census Report of 1951
- Later on 1955 Citizen act came into force for citizenship based on Birth, decent and registration. Thus the Immigrant repealed.
- By 1971 fresh immigrants from East Pakistan came to India for during 1971 war.
- Period from 1971 to recent
- Anti foreign movement started in Assam leads to violence.
- All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) submitted the first memorandum demanding updating of NRC to Centre on January 18, 1980.
- In 1985 Assam Accord signed
- The act ensures that among other clauses foreigners who came to Assam on or after March 25, 1971 shall be expelled.
- In 1999 first formal decision to update the NRC as per the Assam Accord’s cut-off date to detect illegal foreigners agreed by the Centre.
- Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003
- Anyone born in India between 1950-1987 is an Indian citizen.
- Anyone born between 1987-2003 is a citizen provided one of the parents is Indian.
- Anyone born in India since 2004 is a citizen provided one of the parents is Indian and other is not an illegal immigrant at the time.
- NGO Assam Public Works (APW) files case in Supreme Court praying for deletion of foreigners’s name in electoral rolls and updation of NRC in 2009 AND IN 2013 SC directed Centre and states to update the NRC.
- Exclusion Draft introduction
- 2017 Draft NRC published with names of 1.9 crore of total 3.29 crore applicants.
- 2018 in another draft NRC nearly 40 lakh excluded
- In 2019 a 19,06,657 people excluded from the updated list in Assam still struggling to get the slip of reason exclusion which is mentioned in news
Who are excluded?
The NRC will target illegal immigrants in Assam. As of now, the government has vehemently denied the use of the CAA for the updation of the NRC.
The current law do not allow an illegal immigrant for citizenship card.
What to do if rejected (National Register of Citizen Excluded)?
According to the Centre’s standard operating procedures,
- A rejected person would have 120 days from the date of receiving the rejection slip to approach a Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT) for judging their citizenship status.
- But till date they do not received no rejection slip.
NRC in the rest of India
- Centre is pushing the states to implement NRC. The government has not officially called for the updation of the NRC for all of India. So the procedure and impact statistics is not clear.
- Many states started its similar procedure for implementing like Register of Indigenous Inhabitants in Nagaland.
Source : The Hindu
Topic
GS II : Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
Current Affairs Compilation : 1 September 2020