Centre extends terms for Members of 200 Additional FTs by one year

GUWAHATI: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has extended the terms of the Members of 200 Additional FTs (Foreigners Tribunals) for one more year. The Home & Political Department of the Government of Assam will be issuing the notification soon.

The Department appointed these Members on September 11, 2019. The first one-year term of these Members was set to expire this month. Ironically enough, while these Additional FTs have remained non-functional till date, their Members are now merely "attached" to the other 100 permanent FTs. However, it is still unclear as to whether these Members would be assigned specific responsibilities after the extension of their services by yet another year.

On the other hand, the State government has not been able to provide employment to the 1,600 employees selected for these non-functional 200 Additional FTs.

These Additional FTs were constituted to deal with the appeals of people not included in the final NRC (National Register of Citizens) published on August 31, 2019. These ineligible people will have to appeal to these FTs within 120 days after receiving the respective 'Rejection slips' from the NRC authority. However, the Assam NRC authority is yet to issue the 'Rejection Slips' to the people who were found to be ineligible in the final NRC. That is why these 200 Additional FTs are yet to become functional.

Before publication of the final NRC, the MHA had approved "in principle" to set up 1,000 Additional FTs in a phased manner for disposing the cases of persons found ineligible for the final NRC. In the first phase, the Centre gave its nod for the establishment of 400 Additional FTs; of which 200 were set up initially.

Also watch: Look at How Cars are Crossing Roads in West Karbi Anglong