Assam Public Works moves Supreme Court to allow grant of Aadhaar Cards

 '27 lakh people excluded from NRC being deprived of rights

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: By dint of being the primary petitioner in the matters pertaining to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Assam Public Works (APW) has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court seeking grant of Aadhaar Cards to 27 lakh people whose names were excluded from the NRC.

APW president Abhijit Sarma and general secretary Dhruba Jyoti Talukdar informed the media on Wednesday that that they have contended in the affidavit that the persons whose names have been excluded from the NRC include many indigenous persons. Moreover, they have pointed that an Aadhar Card is not a certificate of citizenship as even foreign nationals are entitled to it after 12 months' continuous legal stay in the country. On the other hand, the affidavit mentions, non-possession of an Aadhar Card deprives a deserving person of the benefits of many welfare schemes. As such, they have requested the Supreme Court to unblock the biometric data of these 27 lakh people and pave the way for issuance of Aadhar Cards to them.

The indigenous people whose names have erroneously excluded from the NRC have become veritable hostages of the process, Sarma and Talukdar said.

The two APW office-bearers further alleged that despite several complaints filed by them with evidence in the last three years, the Assam Police and the State Government have not taken due action against financial embezzlement to the tune of Rs 355 crore by former State Coordinator of NRC Prateek Hajela, along with serious irregularities in the software system used for the process. They cited the example of a complaint lodged by the APW with the CID regarding the faulty software issue, which was subsequently transferred by the CID to the Paltanbazar Police Station. They questioned as to how the Paltanbazar police would be able to investigate irregularities in the NRC software when it is the CID which has cyber experts in its team.

Sarma and Talukdar further stated that they would move the Supreme Court again to seek 100 per cent revision of the NRC data in the Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Chirang, South Salmara-Mankachar, Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Barpeta, Nalbari, Kamrup, Kamrup (M), Darrang, Udalguri, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Morigaon, Nagaon, Hojai, Golaghat, Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts.

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