The Assam government has decided that all applications for the Aadhaar Card will be rejected if the applicant or their family has not applied for inclusion in the National Register of Citizens (NRC). This decision was made during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, with Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma addressing the media.
Sarma highlighted concerns over “infiltration from Bangladesh”, saying that Assam Police, Tripura Police, and the Border Security Force (BSF) had apprehended numerous infiltrators in the last two months. “Infiltration from Bangladesh is a concern for us, and we need to tighten our system,” Sarma said.
The General Administration Department will now be responsible for verifying Aadhaar applicants. After an initial application is made, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will forward it to the state government for further verification. A local Circle Officer (CO) will check if the applicant or their family members have applied for NRC. If no NRC application is found, the Aadhaar request will be immediately rejected, and a report will be submitted to the central government. If the family had applied for NRC, the CO will conduct a field-level verification as per Supreme Court directives before approving the Aadhaar application.
Sarma said that this new directive would not apply to central government employees working in other states who had not applied for NRC. “We want to enforce a strict mechanism to ensure that no doubtful individuals can obtain the Aadhaar card,” he added.
The Cabinet reintroduced a manual system for accepting land revenue payments, acknowledging the difficulties faced by small landholders in making online payments. The Cabinet also approved the waiver of renewal fees under the Societies Registration Act to facilitate land allotment for social institutions under the Mission Basundhara 3.0 scheme.
The final NRC, published on August 31, 2019, excluded over 19 lakh people, with 3.11 crore names included from a total of 3.3 crore applicants.
