Guwahati, April 21: The Assam government has decided to file an interlocutory application (IA) in the Supreme Court to ensure that National Register of Citizens (NRC) applicants, whose biometrics were locked during the update of the citizen’s register , are able to get Aadhaar cards.
Assam parliamentary affairs and information minister Pijush Hazarika on Wednesday evening informed that the state Cabinet has approved the filing of an interlocutory application in the apex court to ensure that the citizens of the state, both whose names are in left out of the NRC, could get their Aadhaar cards.
Later, taking to Twitter, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also informed about the Cabinet’s approval to filing of an IA (Interlocutory Application) in the Supreme Court for relaxation of Para 9 of the SOP and for providing Aadhaar cards to NRC applicants whose Aadhaar cards are kept on hold because of existing SOP.
“This will benefit a large section of people below poverty line, students, pensioners, job seekers who do not have Aadhaar cards,” Sarma added.
It may be noted that the biometric data of about 28 lakh NRC applicants, whose biometric details were collected during claims and objections period of the NRC exercise, was locked during the update process. As such, UIDAI has not been able to generate their Aadhaar cards.
Out of these applicants, the names of about 19 lakh applicants were not included in the Supplementary List of Inclusions published on August 31, 2019.
Sources say that non-issuance of Aadhaar cards to these applicants have deprived them of availing various welfare schemes of the central and state government.
The Assam government had last month held an interaction with representatives of 27 organisations of the state to discuss the issue of non-generation of Aadhaar cards of people whose biometric details were locked during the update of the NRC.
The Assam Public Works (APW), the original petitioner in the Supreme Court which led to the updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), has already filed an interlocutory application before the apex court seeking its direction to the concerned authorities to unlock the biometric data and issuance of Aadhaar cards to the NRC applicants whose biometric details were collected during claims and objections period of the NRC exercise.
