Terming the just-completed exercise of updating Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) “a phase” in a larger process, Indian home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said the Centre wouldn’t allow a single “infiltrator’ to live in the state.
“A phase of the NRC has been completed within time. As people are raising concerns, we want to make it very clear that not a single ‘infiltrator’ will be allowed to stay,” he said at the 68th plenary of the North Eastern Council (NEC) here, reports TOI.
Shah, whose two-day visit to the state is his first as home minister, also reassured the CMs of the eight northeastern states that the Centre would not tinker with the special status enjoyed by some states under Article 371.
“I have clarified in Parliament that provisions under Article 371 will remain intact. While Article 370 was temporary, Article 371 is permanent.”
Shah’s statement on the resolve to purge Assam of every “infiltrator” comes in the wake of various organisations, including BJP’s state unit, questioning the exclusion of many “genuine citizens” in the final NRC.
After 40 lakh people were excluded from the second draft, Shah had called those people “infiltrator” and vowed to deport them.
