Guwahati: The Centre on Tuesday said that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) data for Assam will not be made public until a data security system akin to Aadhaar is in place.
The government claimed that the Supreme Court ordered this. The Registrar General of India (RGI), the Centre, and the state will all receive access to the data, they noted.
The Assam NRC listings were produced in 2019, but the RGI has yet to formally notify the public of the data.
On August 13, 2019, the Supreme Court ordered that a suitable system be put in place that is equivalent to the security regime given for Aadhaar data in order to monitor the NRC process in Assam.
Nityanand Rai, the minister of state for home affairs, emphasised the apex court’s order in response to questioning from Assam Congress MP Abdul Khaleque in the Lok Sabha.
According to him, the supplementary list of inclusions and exclusions was issued on August 31, 2019, per the Supreme Court’s instructions.
The state NRC coordinator has been ordered by the SC to “enact an appropriate security regime on lines similar to the security regime provided for Aadhaar data and only thereafter the list shall be made available to the State Government, Central Government, and Registrar General of India,” the NRC coordinator continued.
According to reports, the NRC directorate declared that the authorities had filed a proposal for the establishment of a system comparable to Aadhaar for the RGI.
Reportedly, the renovation will cost roughly Rs 18 crores and take about seven months to complete.
It should be mentioned that more than 31 million eligible people were included in the Assam final NRC list, which was published in August 2019.
However, the omission of more than 1.9 million caused a significant uproar.
Rejection slips have not yet been given out to those who have been excluded and who can appeal the decision to the Foreigners’ Tribunal. Additionally, the RGI has not notified the NRC that its decisions are final.