NEW DELHI – Indian Army troops are on stand-by while a massive number of45,000 security personnel are being deployed across Assam ahead of thepublication of the first draft of a list of the state’s citizens, officialssaid Friday. Assam is on the edge ahead of the publication of the partdraft National Register of Citizens on December 31, and the securityforces, including 22,000 paramilitary personnel, are being deployed indifferent districts, especially in sensitive pockets.
The Counter Insurgency (CI) grid, involving the Army, police, paramilitaryand intelligence agencies, has been regularly reviewing the situation anddirected all possible action to ensure peace after the publication of thedraft NRC, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.Army troops have been alerted and will be called if necessary to assist theadministration in case of any trouble, the official said.There have been intelligence inputs about possible tension in some parts ofthe state where names of doubtful citizens could be excluded in the draftlist.
Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba spent two days in the state last week,reviewing preparations for the publication of the part draft of the NRC andsecurity arrangements, as ensuring peace in the state is a top priority forthe Centre and the state governments, another official said.
The exercise to update the NRC is being carried out in Assam following adecision in 2005 after a series of meetings between the central and stategovernments and the influential All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) in anattempt to document the bona fide Indian citizens living the state. Assam,which faced influx from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is theonly state having an NRC, first prepared in 1951.The current exercise, started in 2005 under the then Congress regime, got amajor push only after the BJP came to power in the state with illegalimmigration from Bangladesh as a poll plank.
The Supreme Court, which is monitoring the entire process, had ordered thatthe first draft of the NRC be published by December 31 after completing thescrutiny of over two crore claims along with that of around 38 lakh peoplewhose documents were suspect.