The Centre on Tuesday told the Lok Sabha that it has not taken any decision on preparing a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) for the whole country. “Till now, the government has not taken any decision to prepare the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) at national level,” Union Minister Nityanand Rai said in a written to a question in Lok Sabha.
He, however, said the government has decided to update the National Population Register (NPR) under the Citizenship Act, 1955, along with the first phase of Census 2021.
So far, the NRC has been updated only in Assam. When the final list of the NRC was published in 2019, a total of 19.06 lakh of the 3.3 crore applicants were excluded, triggering a huge political row.
It also informed the Lok Sabha of reports about some Rohingya migrants indulging in illegal activities, adding that steps were taken to identify them for deportation. As per the directions of the Centre to states, the law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been sensitised to take immediate steps for identification of illegal migrants, restricting them to specific locations and capturing their biographic and biometric particulars to initiate legal proceedings against them, including deportation as per provisions of the law.
This is the first time that the Ministry of Home Affairs has acknowledged that it is capturing biographic and biometric details for cancellation of fake Indian documents and to initiate legal proceedings, including deportation, against illegal migrants.
Replying to another question, the minister said any person who is not satisfied with the outcome of the decisions of the claims and objections during the process of preparing the NRC in Assam may prefer an appeal before the designated Foreigners Tribunals within 120 days from the date of such order.
Since those excluded from the NRC in Assam are yet to exhaust all possible legal remedies available to them, the question of their nationality verification does not arise at this stage, he added.