NEW DELHI: The government may explore legislative options to deal with the wrongful inclusion/exclusion of some names in the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC), Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on Monday.
Speaking to journalists after an hour-long meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other senior ministry officials, Sonowal said the government will ensure peaceful publication of the NRC on August 31 as mandated by the Supreme Court.
ALSO READ: NRC effect - Assam family calls off wedding after groom fails to produce citizenship papers
“In a democracy, everyone has the right to ask questions. After the publication of NRC, if necessary in future, we will take whatever steps are required,” Sonowal said.
He was responding to a question on whether the government will explore some legislative options to deal with those whose names may be wrongfully included in the final NRC.
Last month, the SC had rejected the central and Assam governments’ plea to extend the date for publication of NRC.
Sonowal said there were apprehensions about the law and order situation in Assam when the part draft and the final draft of the NRC was published in 2018.
“But with the cooperation of the people of Assam, everything went off peacefully. This time also, with the active support of the central government, security forces and as per the expectations of the people, the NRC will be published on August 31.”
Doubts over NRC
In July last year, over 40 lakh people were excluded from the complete draft of the NRC, which contained 2,89,83,677 eligible people out of a total 3,29,91,384 applicants.
An additional 1,02,462 people were included last month in the list of excluded persons, taking the total ineligible persons to 41,10,169 in the complete draft of the document.