Verification of citizens and foreigners Centre extends deadline by 5 months
Source: The Sangai Express / Agencies

New Delhi, December 29 2017: As an edgy Assam gears up to publish the "first" partial draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) by December 31, the Centre has extended the deadline for completion of the entire process of verifying citizens in the state by another five months.

"The date has been extended for financial pur- poses.

The publication of first partial draft is a separate issue which will go on as per the directions of the Supreme Court.

But to continue and complete the exercise, funds are required to be allocated and therefore the deadline has been extended," a senior home ministry official said on the condition of anonymity.

The publication of the "part" draft is a major cause of anxiety for many people in the state.

The issue has become a political hot potato as minorities have expressed fears of being left out.

The Supreme Court had recently ordered that this would only be a partial roll of citizens and "the remaining portion" of the draft NRC should be released at a "later date", which will also be fixed by the court, to include names of those who might be declared non-citizens erroneously and found eligible later.

The purpose of the NRC is to identify genuine Indian citizens residing in the state and those who had illegally migrated from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971, a date agreed in the Assam Accord signed between the then All-Assam Students' Union and the Rajiv Gandhi-led government in 1985 .

The NRC was last updated in Assam in 1951 .

To prove one's citizenship under the verification drive, a resident has to either link one's relation to a family member whose name figures in the NRC of 1951 or to any of the state's electoral rolls till 1971 .

In Kathalia (Tripura), Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has threatened to send Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar to Bangladesh after the state assembly elections, if he failed to stop political attacks on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers.

The senior BJP leader launched a scathing attack on Sarkar on Thursday accusing him of being vindictive towards opposition party supporters and allowing criminals to murder several BJP party workers in the state.

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