Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Friday asked the deputy commissioners and Superintendents of Police to ensure that there exists no misunderstanding among anyone over the NRC across the state.
Sonowal said this after reviewing the law and order situation in Guwahati on Friday.
He asked the DCs and SPs to take help of public representatives like MLAs, Zilla Parishad members, Panchayat members and NGOs in this regard.
He said that each and every person should be made aware of the real implications of NRC, which was being monitored by the Supreme Court of India.
Sonowal referred to the recent statement of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and added that even people excluded from NRC would not be treated as foreigners.
He said that the Foreigners’ Tribunals are the ultimate authority in declaring a person foreigner but there is a stipulated process for this.
The Supreme Court had fixed August 31 as the date for publication of the final NRC.
The MHA had recently informed that non-inclusion of a person’s name in the NRC does not by itself amount to him or her being declared as a foreigner.
They would be given adequate opportunity to present their case before the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs), the MHA stated recently.
Saying that Assam had the distinction of being the first state where NRC was being updated, Sonowal urged the DCs and SPs to extensively tour their respective districts.
“Spread the right message about NRC among the people through discussions with various stakeholders,” the CM said.
“The people of the state would extend their wholehearted cooperation this time also like in the time of publication two draft NRCs in maintaining peace and harmony,” Sarbananda Sonowal added.
He also asked the police to make the engage the youths and make them aware of the right usage of social media and harms of spreading rumours and misinformation.