As the release of the initial part-draft of the contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC) reaches its final stages, security has been beefed up across Assam on Saturday to maintain law and order.
The government has mobilised around 60,000 police and paramilitary troops in sensitive areas of the border state as the Registrar-General of India prepares to publish the list on the midnight of 31 December, which it says will be used to detect and deport illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
Speaking to Firstpost, Assam Director-General of Police Mukesh Sahay said that adequate security arrangements have been put in place to avoid untoward incidents after the release of the list.
“We have been reviewing our security preparations every day and have been reacting to the evolving situation,” Sahay said, “We have categorised regions based on their perceived sensitivity and planned accordingly.”
Security personnel at the India-Bangladesh border. Representational image. Reuters
When asked which areas have been marked sensitive, Sahay said that a place’s sensitivity will depend on the “profile of the draft” that will be released to the public.
Pointing out that social media is an important factor adding to the region’s security, he said, “Most of the misinformation, rumours etc spread through social media, so we are closely monitoring that space as well.”
Last week, Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba visited the state to take stock of the situation ahead of the release of the draft. Saying that Gauba was satisfied with the preparation, Sahay added that the Central government has extended help “both directly and indirectly”.
The help has been extended “directly by way of inducting about 85 companies of paramilitary forces across Assam, and indirectly through intelligence sharing, social media monitoring etc.”
The NRC draft will be released through multiple portals like government websites, physical NRC Seva Kendras, and even through SMS if one has their phone number registered in the NRC database.
Around 2,500-3,000 government seva kendras, each covering about 10 villages, will hand out physical copies of the draft list. “Seva kendras where the lists will be published will be covered by static security, not only for security purposes but also for regulating the crowds that may gather there. Additionally, there will be quick reaction teams stationed and mobile teams on the move — we are trying to manage it almost like an election,” Sahay said.
The Hindu reported that the initial list would contain the names of nearly two crore of the 3.28 crore who applied for inclusion in the registry from 2013.
As a Firstpost report had earlier pointed out, the exercise could lead to communal tensions in the state, which has the second highest percentage of Muslims in India. “The NRC is being done to identify illegal Bangladeshis residing in Assam,” Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam’s finance minister who is also in charge of the citizenship register, said.
“All those whose names do not figure in the NRC will have to be deported. We’re taking no chances and hence all security measures have been taken,” Sarma said.
However, government officials say that there is no reason for panic for people who do not find their names in the draft that will be released on Sunday.
“There is no first and second draft as such. What releases tomorrow is the part publication of the draft NRC. The Supreme Court had mandated that using all documents that have been verified as of 31 December, a part publication of this draft has to be released,” a senior official in the state government who did not wish to be named, said.
He said there will be another draft that will be released subsequently, soon after completion of verification of all unverified and pending documents. “People who do not find their names in tomorrow’s draft, or find details of themselves or others erroneously entered, can appeal under the ‘claims and objections’ tab in the portal,” the official, who is closely associated with the NRC work of the Assam government, explained.
The subsequent complete NRC draft publication will be released in the coming months, but a date cannot be estimated at this stage, he said.
“The entire process is a statutory exercise carried out in compliance of and in accordance with the provisions of law. Moreover, the highest court of the land itself is independently and closely monitoring the situation. So there is no reason for people to panic,” he added.
Sahay had a word of warning for people planning to create trouble after the release of the list. “We have already sent out a strong message that if somebody tries to create mischief, we will deal with them with a very heavy hand,” he said.
“My message to the people is this: Our New Year’s Eve will be spent in the NRC Seva Kendras, and all our boots will be on the ground from Sunday, so there is no reason to worry,” he further said.
Published Date: Dec 30, 2017 09:09 pm | Updated Date: Dec 30, 2017 09:09 pm
