Prameshwar is at his wits’ end and a totally perplexed person. The latest in the hearing on claims and objections for National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise requires that he give his biometric details.
A report published in the The Economic Times quoted Prameshwar, who hails from Saikhowa Ghat in Tinsukia district, as saying, “I was asked to give my biometric details despite my telling them (authorities) that I already have an Aadhaar card.”
The report further stated that the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the draft NRC states that the Assam government, along with the Unique Identification Authority of India, will carry out biometric enrolment of the applicants during the process. According to the SOP sent to district registrars of citizens’ registration, separate IDs based on the biometric data will be generated for people who have made claims to be included in the NRC and those who are facing objections to their inclusion in the draft list. Once the final NRC is published, the people who figure in it will be issued the usual Aadhaar number. In case a person already has the Aadhaar number, and is also a part of the claim or objection process, his or her Aadhaar number will be obtained.
In 1,436 centres, hearings for the claims and objections regarding NRC updation process are underway. “Various awareness programmes are being carried out where we tell people that this is not Aadhaar and the process is necessitated for claims,” stated Oinam Sarankumar Singh, deputy commissioner of Tinsukia.