NEW DELHI, April 4 - The Centre today denied harassment of ethnic groups by police in the name of identification of foreigners in Assam.
There is no report with the Government of India of any harassment of ethnic groups by police in identification of foreigners in Assam. The identification of foreigners is done as per provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946.
According to instructions of the Election Commission of India, �D� was marked in the voters list against names of those persons who could not show proof of Indian citizenship during preparation of the electoral rolls. Further, as per a 2011 order of the Gauhati High Court, �D� was marked against names of persons having proceeding in foreigners tribunals.
�The �D� voters are not sent to detention camps. Only persons declared foreigners by tribunals are kept in detention centres,� Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju clarified.
Meanwhile, in reply to a separate question, Rijiju said the exercise of NRC update is being carried out as per the Citizenship (Registration of citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. �This work is being carried out in a fair and objective manner. The Supreme Court is monitoring this exercise,� he said.
All available electoral rolls up to 1971 and the 1951 NRC were digitised and made available in public domain, both online and offline, for the benefit of the public. As such, even in case of loss of documents by the public due to natural calamities, substantial data were available in public domain to enable them to submit their NRC application forms.
No complaint has been received from any quarter to the effect that genuine Indian citizens have not been able to apply for NRC due to loss of document in flood or any other natural calamities or non-availability of record, he said.
