DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Monday said that implementation of National Register for Citizens (NRC) will be discussed in the state cabinet in the hill state. “I will discuss the matter with the cabinet. If need be, this (NRC) will be implemented in Uttarakhand too. Our state is a border state and infiltration from other countries is a serious issue,” said the CM.
Rawat’s statement follows at least three CMs of BJP-led states, including Haryana’s Manohar Lal Khattar and Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath and Jharkhand’s Raghubar Das, have pushed for the implementation of the citizens’ registry.
On Monday, Adityanath said infiltrators were now being driven out. “In 2022, India will be free from poverty, terrorism, Naxalism, anarchy and disorder. The dream of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ will come true.”
Rawat said porous borders with Nepal and China leads to infiltration.
Rawat’s announcement has invoked fear in over 3.5-4 lakh Bangladeshi migrants living in the hill state. The threat of being thrown out lurks as the National Population Register will come in force in April 2020.
SP Sarkar, secretary of Uttarakhand Karamchari Unnayan Samiti, a group of Bengali migrants, said, “Almost all of us came to India between 1951 and 70. We have been living here for three generations. I hope we will not be thrown out.”