3 min readGuwahatiSep 8, 2024 10:08 AM IST
First published on: Sep 7, 2024 at 07:56 PM IST
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Saturday announced the government’s decision to not issue Aadhaar cards to people who had not applied to be a part of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in 2014.
He said the decision is part of a larger drive by the Assam government, and cited the examples of Dhubri, Barpeta and Morigaon, where he said the total number of Aadhaar cards issued exceeds the projected population for these districts.
He said that in these three districts – all three of which are Muslim-majority – the percentage of Aadhaar cards issued against the projected population figures are 103%, 103% and 101% for Dhubri, Barpeta and Morigaon, respectively. He said it can, therefore, be deduced that “suspected foreigners” have also accessed Aadhaar cards in these districts.
He said that because of this, the state government has decided to issue a standard operating protocol for future issuance of Aadhaar cards, which will make it mandatory for one to furnish their NRC application number, which had been provided to them while applying in 2015.
The process of updating the NRC, which is currently in limbo after the publication of a “final NRC” in 2019, had begun in 2015. The process had been undertaken to determine whether an applicant had entered the state before March 24, 1971. Those who were found to have entered Assam before that date were to be included in the NRC, and be recognized as citizens. Those who were excluded from the NRC were to face a trial in the state’s Foreigner Tribunal system.
The applications for the process had been carried out between March and August 2015 and 3,30,27,661 people had applied. In the final NRC, published in August 2019, 19 lakh of these applicants had been excluded. However, that NRC is yet to be notified.
Sarma suggested that people who were not among those 3.3 crore who applied for NRC will not be issued Aadhaar cards, saying that it was a “universal process”.
“The question of whether the person’s name was included or excluded from the NRC is a different thing, but he has to have been an applicant. If you hadn’t even applied, that means that you weren’t even in Assam. From that, it can prima facie be taken that the person had entered Assam after 2014…. From October 1, the availability of Aadhaar cards in Assam will be a difficult test… We will issue a tough SOP in the next 10-15 days,” he said, adding that the tea garden community will be exempted from difficulties in the process since the state government has not yet been able to deliver Aadhaar cards for a sizeable number of people in the community.
He said that while it is the Central government which issues Aadhaar, it has given the Assam government some amount of discretionary power by making it necessary for a no-objection certificate from the District Collector concerned.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. (PTI Photo) 
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