Assam: CM Himanta Cabinet's Big Move, No Aadhaar Without NRC

GUWAHATI: In an attempt to link the Aadhaar Card with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Assam government on Wednesday decided that all applications to get the unique identity card will be rejected if the applicant or the family had not applied in NRC. The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting in view of an infiltration attempt by citizens of trouble-hit Bangladesh, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at a press conference here.

"Scores of infiltrators have been nabbed by Assam Police, Tripura Police and BSF in the last two months. That is why infiltration from Bangladesh is a concern for us. We need to strengthen our system and that is why we decided to toughen the Aadhaar Card mechanism," he added. From now on, the General Administration Department of the state government will be the nodal agency to carry out the verification of the Aadhaar applicants and one Additional District Commissioner will be the concerned person in every district, Sarma said after the Cabinet meeting.

"After the initial application, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will send it to the state government for verification. The local Circle Officer (CO) will first check if the applicant or his parents or family had applied for inclusion in the NRC," he added. If there was no application for the NRC, then the Aadhaar request will be immediately rejected and a report will be submitted to the Centre accordingly, the CM said.

"If it is found that there was an application for NRC, the CO will go for field-level verification as per Supreme Court directives. After the officer is fully convinced, the Aadhaar will be approved," he added. Sarma, however, said this new directive would not be applicable to the central government employees, who were working in other states and did not apply for the NRC.

"In this way, we will enforce a strict mechanism to strengthen our Aadhaar issuance system so that no doubtful people can get this identity card," he added. According to the new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) approved by the Cabinet, the state government will verify the submitted documents and return them to UIDAI online within 45 days of receipt.

The final NRC was released on August 31, 2019 by excluding 19,06,657 persons. A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.
On the other decisions taken by the Cabinet, Sarma said the manual system of accepting land revenue has been reintroduced in view of difficulties faced by small landholders in the state.

"We had made all land payments digital last year. However, farmers and many poor landowners faced difficulties in paying taxes online. So, the manual system will continue along with the digital mode," he added. The Cabinet also approved waiver of renewal fees under the Societies Registration Act to facilitate application for allotment of land under Mission Basundhara 3.0 scheme for social institutions like 'Namghar' (a place of worship for Vaishnavite followers), religious establishments, clubs and other centres, the CM said.

The Assam government in February launched the third phase of ‘Mission Basundhara, which will ease rules for providing land rights to indigenous communities, give land ownership to organisations and provide settlement of land acquired from religious institutions, among others. "The requirement of chartered accountant certificate for audit of last three years is also waived in such cases," he added.