Our Correspondent / New Delhi
Union Home Minister, Amit Shah has said that the National Register of Citizens, NRC drive will be conducted all across India.
Clarifying there would be no discrimination on the basis of religion, the home minister said: “The process of NRC will be carried out across the country. No one irrespective of their religion should be worried. It is just a process to get everyone under the NRC.”
Replying to a number of questions on NRC and Citizenship (Amendment) Bill during a Question Hour debate in the Rajya Sabha Wednesday Shah said “We had taken up NRC at the initiative of the Supreme Court under a different act. The exercise will now be held countrywide. The NRC exercise will be conducted in Assam”. He, however, reiterated that people belonging to any religious group need not harbour any apprehension. There is provision in the NRC to include people and according to gazette notification the NRC is applicable all over the country,’ Shah said.
Replying to a question about non-inclusion of names in the NRC and the possibility of the Centre waiving off the six year period provision to grant citizenship, Shah clarified that the question related to CAB and not NRC, because such kind of provision cannot be part of NRC. There is provision in the NRC to include names in the citizens’ register. But government agrees that those who came as refugees belonging to different religious group like Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsis and Christian should be granted citizenship and that is why CAB is being brought so that these religious groups who have quit the countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan because of religious persecution are given shelter here,” said the Union Home Minister.
Amidst interruptions by opposition members, Ripun Bora said said that two months have passed since publication of final list yet the process for appeal has been set in motion to hear the 19 lakh people who have been left out of the NRC, asking when will the process start. “All those people who have been excluded from the NRC have a right to appeal. Tribunals will be set up in each district and those who do not have money to approach the Tribunals, Assam Government will bear the cost of hiring lawyers,” Shah said.