Guwahati: The Assam government on Wednesday said that applications for Aadhaar cards would be rejected if the applicant or their family had not applied for inclusion in the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the decision was taken during a Cabinet meeting in the wake of infiltration attempts by citizens of trouble-hit Bangladesh.
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Sarma said that several infiltrators have been apprehended by the Assam Police, Tripura Police and the Border Security Force (BSF) over the past two months.
“Infiltration from Bangladesh is a concern for us, which is why we need to strengthen our system. To address this, we have decided to reinforce the Aadhaar card mechanism,” he added.
He said the state General Administration Department will be the nodal agency responsible for carrying out the verification of Aadhaar applicants, and an additional district commissioner will be the designated person in each district from now onwards.
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“Once the initial application is submitted, the Unique Identification Authority of India will forward it to the state government for verification. The local circle officer will first verify whether the applicant or his parents or family members had applied for inclusion in the NRC,” Sarma explained.
The chief minister said that if there was no application for the NRC, the Aadhaar request would be immediately rejected and a report would be submitted to the Centre accordingly.
“If it is found that an application for NRC exists, the circle officer will conduct field-level verification according to the Supreme Court’s directives. Once the officer is convinced fully, Aadhaar will be approved,” he added.
However, he said this new directive would not apply to central government employees working in other states who did not apply for the NRC.
Sarma said that a strict mechanism will be implemented in this manner to strengthen the Aadhaar issuance system, ensuring no doubtful people obtain the card.