The final Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) list will be released on Saturday (August 31), over a year after the first list was released in July 2018.
The security in the state has been stepped up and Section 144 CrPC has been imposed in several areas to maintain peace and public order during publication of the list. The police also appealed to the people not to believe in rumours.
Earlier on Thursday, the Assam police said the government has ensured adequate safeguards for people, whose name may not appear in the final NRC.
The NRC is an exercise to identify whether a person living in Assam is an Indian or a foreigner or an illegal immigrant.
Meanwhile, the centre has said people whose names don’t appear in the final NRC cannot be declared foreigners till all legal options are exhausted. While state Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Friday asked people not to panic and said the state government will take all possible steps to help genuine Indians prove their citizenship and provide legal assistance.
ALSO READ: Leading Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong arrested
“The list would be available online by 10 am and those who do not have internet connections can go to Seva Kendras set up by the state government to check their status,” a senior officer in the Home Ministry told NDTV.
The final draft, which was published in July last year, included 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants— excluding around 40 lakh people.
The NRC sets the cut-off date to be a legal Indian citizen as March 24, 1971 — a date formalised by the Assam Accord, which was signed by the All Assam Students Union, Assam government and Central government in 1985.
In order to be included in the NRC, one needs to prove with documentary evidence that one or one’s ancestors had entered the country before the cut-off date.