The Aadhaar enrolment of more than 27 lakh people in Assam has been shrouded in uncertainty because of the delay in completing the process of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The biometrics of 27,43,396 people were collected during the claims and objections phase of the NRC exercise prior to the publishing of the complete draft on August 31, 2019. They included the 19,06,657 people left out of the complete draft.
The applications of 3.3 crore people were processed during the exercise to update the NRC of 1951.
Replying to a question by the All-India United Democratic Front MLA Ashraful Hussain in the Assembly on Tuesday, Assam’s Minister for General Administration Ranjeet Kumar Dass said the onus was on the Centre to decide whether or not these 27.43 lakh people would be issued Aadhaar cards necessary for banking and other services.
The biometrics of these people were frozen after the publication of the NRC in August 2019. The Centre had earlier been asked to unfreeze the biometrics since the NRC was yet to be recognised as a document for citizenship.
“We have taken up the issue with the Centre, which can decide whether these people will be eligible for Aadhaar card,” Mr. Dass said.
