No Aadhaar for those who did not apply for Assam NRC, says Himanta Biswa Sarma
The state government approved a proposal for a standard operating procedure to ensure stricter guidelines, said the chief minister.
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The Assam government would reject applications for Aadhaar cards if a resident or their family members did not apply to be a part of the National Register of Citizens, said Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday.
Following a meeting of the state Cabinet, Sarma told reporters that a proposal for a standard operating procedure to ensure stricter guidelines had been approved.
“Scores of infiltrators have been nabbed by Assam Police, Tripura Police and BSF [Border Security Force] in the last two months,” The Indian Express quoted Sarma as saying. “That is why infiltration from Bangladesh is a concern for us.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party has often labelled the Bengal-Muslim community, or Miya Muslims, in Assam as “infiltrators” who are allegedly taking over resources, jobs and land of the indigenous people. The community has also been portrayed as posing a threat to Assamese culture and identity.
“We need to strengthen our system and that is why we decided to toughen the Aadhaar card mechanism,” Sarma added.
Aadhaar is a unique 12-digit number identity number issued to residents of India by a statutory body, the Unique Identification Authority of India.
Assam published the National Register of Citizens on August 31, 2019, with the aim to separate Indian citizens from undocumented immigrants living in the state. Residents had to prove that they...
