Mumbai: India said on Monday it had excluded more than four million people from a draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam who could not produce valid documents, a move that has sparked fears about the future of thousands in the region.
Security has been tightened across the state, which borders Bangladesh, as thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims worry about being sent to detention centres or deported, a Reuters witness said.
The tea-rich state of Assam has long been the centre of social and communal tensions with locals campaigning against illegal immigrants.
In 1983, scores of people were chased down and killed by machete-armed mobs intent on hounding out Muslim immigrants.
The government said the draft was not meant to drive people out and those struck out of the list would have a chance to re-apply.
"Based on this draft, there is no question of anyone being taken to detention centres or foreigners’ tribunal," Sailesh, India's census commissioner who uses only one name, told reporters in Guwahati.
Hundreds of thousands of people fled to India from Bangladesh during Bangladesh's war of independence from Pakistan in the early 1970s. Most of them settled in Assam, which has a near-270 km border with Bangladesh.
More than 30 million people had applied and 4,007,707 had been excluded from the list, Sailesh said.
To be recognised as Indian citizens, all residents of Assam had to produce documents proving that they or their families lived in the country before March 24, 1971.
Sailesh did not provide a breakup of people who had failed to make to the draft list.
Critics see the citizenship test as another measure supported by BJP aimed at minority Muslims. The BJP denies any bias but says it opposes a policy of appeasement of any community.
Authorities in the state have previously said the citizenship test was crucial to protect ethnic Assamese, many of whom have demanded removal of outsiders they accuse of taking jobs and cornering resources in the state of 33 million.
The first draft of the NRC, released on December 31, confirmed the citizenship of 19 million people, leading to jubilation for some and heartbreak among others.
The NRC, however, told the Supreme Court this month that 1,50,000 people from the first list, a third of them married women, would be dropped from the next one, mainly because they provided false information or gave inadmissible documents.
"If the government has decided to brand us foreigners what can we do?" said Abdul Suban, 60, a Bengali-speaking Muslim, earlier.
"The NRC is trying to finish us off. Our people have died here, but we will not leave this place."
What to do if name is not in the draft?
If a person's name does not appear in the draft, they have to apply in prescribed forms in their respective NSKs. These forms will be available from August 7 to September 28 and the authorities will then inform them the reason for their names being left out.
The next step will be to file the claim in another prescribed form which will be available from August 30 to September 28 and these claims will be finally disposed of after proper hearings.
The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) has taken a special initiative to set up a 24-hour control room at its central office here to help people.
The applicants can also call 24x7 toll free numbers--15107 from Assam and 18003453762 from outside Assam-- by referring to their 21-digit Application Receipt Number (ARN).
The applicants can also check their names by visiting the NRC website and through SMSs.
The NRC is being updated under the Supreme Court supervision with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for genuine Indian citizens in Assam.
The first draft of the ongoing NRC process was released at the midnight of December 31, 2017. It comprised 1.9 crore names out of the total application of 3.29 crore people in Assam.
(With inputs from PTI)
