The National Register of Citizens (NRC) should be updated in every Indian state to curb illegal immigration, the chief minister of Assam said on Tuesday.
CM Sarbananda Sonowal made the call during a seminar at the Constitution Club in Delhi titled “NRC: Defending the Borders, Securing the Culture".
“It is imperative to update the NRC in the rest of the country," Sonowal said. "This is to ensure that immigrants in the state do not find shelter in any other part of India. Otherwise, the ongoing exercise in Assam will be a futile one."
He added: “Census reports show that the increase in population is far beyond the national average in some states of the country in the past few decades."
The Assam CM claimed the “peaceful environment” in Assam in the aftermath of the drafted NRC publication indicates that people cutting across religious and linguistic lines had extended their full cooperation to the publication of the draft.
“There is no question of anyone being put in a detention centre after the publication of the final NRC,” added the Assam CM.
According to a statement released by the Assam Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Sonowal said the National Register of Citizens (NRC) update in Assam could be a model to be emulated across the country.
The Assam CM also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for attaching top priority to seal the Indo-Bangla international border, and his efforts to fix the boundary through the land-swap bill.
