With only a few days to go for the publication of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Assam Police on Thursday said elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure that nothing goes wrong in the aftermath of the list’s publication. The state will also receive 80 companies of additional forces.
The Assam government is scheduled to publish one part of the draft NRC after midnight of December 31 this year, which will be made available for the people of the state from January 1, 2018.
The NRC is being updated under the guidance and monitoring of the Supreme Court and is being carried out by the Register General of India (RGI).
However, there is widespread apprehension that part publication of the draft NRC might lead to law and order problem as it would not have the names of all the people.
The NRC office in Assam has received 68 lakh applications accompanied by six crore documents for inclusion in the NRC. While a lot of documents have already been verified, a substantial number are still being verified.
“We have already received 30 companies of the Central Paramilitary forces (CPMF) and another 50 companies are being sent to the state for deployment in the run up to publication of the NRC. We are taking all precautions to ensure smooth publication of the NRC and trying our best to ensure peace,” said additional director general of police (special branch) Pallav Bhattacharyya on Thursday.
“We have already identified some sensitive districts and security arrangements have been reviewed in those areas so as to ensure peace after publication of the NRC,” he said.
The police is also monitoring social media to make sure no one is spreading hate campaigns. “We are planning to give a software to the police in all the districts so that they can monitor the social media for better policing,” an official said.
The Assam government had also instructed the district and sub-divisional officials to carry out awareness campaigns in all areas including the remote areas to make people aware about the NRC.
The government has also been issuing advertisements through the media to make people aware and to reiterate that even if someone’s name is not published in the part draft NRC, there will be ample scope to address their grievances till the final NRC is published.
