Scrap earlier NRC, prepare new list with rest of Indian states: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday announced that he plans to redo the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise. Supporting him, BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is also the finance minister of Assam said that the already filed NRC list by the state should be scrapped and a new one be made along with the rest of India,

“We believe that the NRC prepared by former state coordinator Prateek Hajela has failed to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Assam. There are many shortcomings, as we have already pointed out. While various groups in Assam have already filed review petitions before the Supreme Court, we now want this faulty list to be scrapped in favour of a nationwide NRC,” Sarma was quoted by NDTV.

Earlier this afternoon, Amit Shah announced in Parliament that the centre will undertake the NRC exercise across the country. He said, “Nobody from any religion should be worried. This is just a process to get everyone under the citizen’s list,” adding that a new NRC list will be prepared for Assam in view of concerns about the last one.

As many as 19 lakh people’s names were missing from the final Assam NRC list that released on August 31. The list was criticised by many, and even a few leaders got vocal about their displeasure.

Recently, following a Supreme Court order Prateek Hajela was replaced by Assam Civil Service officer Hitesh Dev Sarma as the NRC coordinator.