Won’t withdraw Central forces deployed in Assam for NRC work: Centre to SC

New Delhi, Mar 13: Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the Central forces deployed in Assam for National Register of Citizens (NRC) work will not be withdrawn, in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Appearing for the Centre, the Attorney General K K Venugopal, said that the government has directed that the 167 companies deployed in Assam will continue to remain in the state.

Earlier, SC came down heavily on the Centre over the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) process and said it is hell bent on not allowing the work to continue.

The top court rapped Ministry of Home Affairs for its plea seeking to stall the NRC work for two weeks keeping in mind the role of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in the election duty.

Reiterating that July 31 deadline for the completion of NRC exercise will not be extended, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the Centre is not cooperating in the NRC process and it seems the entire effort of the MHA is to destroy the NRC process.

The apex court asked the Election Commission to consider exempting certain state officers from election duty to ensure that NRC process continues.

The top court had said on January 24 that the July 31, 2019 deadline to finalise the NRC for Assam cannot be extended. It had asked the state government, the NRC co-ordinator and the EC to ensure that the upcoming general elections did not slow down the process.

The draft National Register of Citizens for Assam was published on July 30, 2018 in which the names of 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore people were included. The names of 40,70,707 people did not figure in the list. Of these, 37,59,630 names have been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 are on hold.