NATIONAL
REGISTER OF CITIZENS (NRC) - POLITY
News:
CAG detects anomalies in
Assam NRC updation
What's
in the news?
●
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India
(CAG) has detected large-scale anomalies in the updating of the National
Register of Citizens in Assam.
●
The CAG report ending March 31, 2020,
submitted to the Assam Assembly on December 24, said 215 software utilities
were added in a haphazard manner to the core software.
●
The haphazard
development of software and utilities for the NRC data capture and
correction posed the risk of data tam- pering without leaving any audit trail.
National
Register of Citizens (NRC):
●
NRC is a register of all Indian citizens whose creation is mandated by the 2003 amendment of
the Citizenship Act, 1955.
●
Its purpose is to document all the legal
citizens of India so that the illegal
immigrants can be identified and deported.
●
At present, only Assam has such a
register. It has been implemented for the state of Assam starting in 2013–2014.
●
It was prepared after the conduct of the
Census of 1951 in respect of each village, showing the houses or holdings in a
serial order and indicating against each house or holding the number and names
of persons staying therein.
●
NRC
for Indian citizens in Assam was first created in 1951.
The list comprised those who lived in India on January 26, 1950, or were born
in India or had parents who were born in India or had been living in India for
at least five years before the January 26, 1950 cut-off.
NRC
for Assam:
●
In
2014, the SC ordered the updation of the NRC, in accordance
with Citizenship Act, 1955 and Citizenship Rules, 2003 in all parts of Assam.
●
In line with the above rules and Assam Accord, 1985 (signed by the
Centre and the All Assam Students Union) provides that, those foreigners
who had entered Assam between 1951 and 1961 were to be given full citizenship,
including the right to vote.
●
Under this accord, those who entered the
state between 1966 and 1971 would be
deleted from the electoral rolls and lose their voting rights for 10 years,
after which their names would be restored to the rolls and enjoy all other
rights of citizenship.
●
Those
who entered on or after March 25, 1971, the eve of the Bangladesh War, would be
declared foreigners and deported.
●
Besides, the Accord had a package for the
economic development of Assam.
●
It also had assurance to provide
safeguards to protect the cultural, social, and linguistic identity and
heritage of the Assamese people.