In what could bring a relief to 9.35 lakh affected people, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Wednesday announced that their cards will be released soon by the UIDAI. Their biometrics were locked during the NRC process more than four years ago.
A total of 9,35,682 people, who had submitted their biometrics during the NRC process between February 2014 and October 2014, found their biometrics frozen and have been caught in a bureaucratic tangle since then, unable to access Aadhaar cards.
Many of these people have been pressing for a resolution to this issue, citing difficulties such as joining jobs, availing scholarships, getting admission and even getting ration.
Under the 2018 Supreme Court approved SOP, those left out of the draft NRC list published on July 31, 2018, had to mandatorily submit their biometrics during the hearings of ‘claims’ (to include themselves in the NRC) and ‘objections’ (to object to someone else’s inclusion) process.
These hearings were conducted in the run-up to the publication of the complete list on August 31, 2019. Once the final NRC was published, those who were included in the final NRC were to be given their Aadhaar numbers.
Sarma said that the 9.35 lakh people who had been affected by this tangle have no correlation with the NRC process, but were instead affected in a confusion. Many of these people are included not just in the August 2019 NRC but also in the draft NRC of July 2018.
“Among these are many people who have no connection to the NRC. The only connection between the two issues is that during those four months, they had gone to either NRC or Adhaar seva kendras to give their biometrics, which were the same at that time,” he said.
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“For the last two years, we have been in touch with the Indian government about this, and that the Aadhaar cards should be released… On September 29, the Central govt communicated with us to formally brief them about the whole issue. On August 19, we gave a formal proposal that these 9.35 people’s Aadhaar cards should be released. Based on our letter, yesterday the Central government directed the UIDAI to release the blocked Adhaar cards of Assam and that these 9.35 people’s Aadhaar cards be returned. The Union government has formally removed the obstacle to Aadhaar cards,” he said.
He said that the affected people were likely to be able to collect their Aadhaar cards in the next 15-30 days.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
