NEW DELHI: There is no proposal to extend the National Register of Citizens (NRC) beyond Assam, the Centre informed Parliament on Tuesday.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Ahir said, “The exercise to update NRC 1951 is being conducted under the special provisions in respect of State of Assam under the Citizenship Act, 1955, and the Citizenship Rules, 2003. At present, there is no proposal to extend the NRC to states other than Assam.”
Ahir was responding to Trinamool Congress MP Prasun Banerjee’s question if the government had any such plans.
“The NRC in Assam was prepared in 1951 as a non-statutory process by recording particulars of all the persons enumerated during the 1951 census,” Ahir said in his written reply.
The central government had earlier said there was no proposal to revise the NRC in Tripura, after the Supreme Court sought a reply on a petition requesting its implementation in the state.
The BJP has on multiple occasions suggested the implementation of NRC in other states like West Bengal to drive out illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
Party president Amit Shah, while backing the NRC, had said at a rally that the government would identify all illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in India and expel them.
In August, BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha had urged upon Indian Muslims, especially those living in West Bengal, to support an NRC-like exercise claiming that the state was becoming a hub for infiltrators under the Trinamool Congress rule.
West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh had also said that the NRC would be published in the state if his party was voted to power in Bengal.
‘Humanitarian duty to shelter migrants’
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday it was a humanitarian obliga- tion to give refuge to migrants and that her government would take care of anyone seeking shelter in West Bengal. She been critical of the Centre over the NRC issue.