19 lakh lose Indian citizenship in Assam

Desk Report: Over 19 lakh people have been left out of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC), a list intended to identify legal residents and weed out illegal immigrants from Assam - that was published on Saturday morning.

About 3.11 crore have been included in the crucial citizens' list. This is the second citizens' list published in the country after 1951.

Coming just weeks after the government ended Jammu and Kashmir's decades-old special status, the NRC too is expected to go down as one of the biggest moves in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second term.

Tens of thousands of paramilitary personnel and police have been deployed in India's border state of Assam on the eve of the publication of the citizenship register.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has backed the citizenship test and said it could extend the exercise to other border states such as West Bengal.

Critics say the search for illegal immigrants in Assam has been largely directed at minority Muslims.

The tea-growing state of Assam, with a population of 33 million people, has a history of sectarian and ethnic violence. "All precautionary measures have been taken with security forces deployed in strength," said Assam police chief Kuladhar Saikia.

The Indian government says there will be a four-month period for people not on the list to file appeals with a tribunal. Illegal immigrants will be sent to detention centres and eventually deported, the government says.

Source: Agencies

risingbd/Aug 31, 2019/Mukul