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The National Register of Citizens (NRC) contains names of Indian citizens of Assam.
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The NRC was prepared in 1951, after the Census of 1951
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It is updated periodically. However, in Assam the updation could not be carried on since 1951 due to various political tensions such as Assam Movement of 1980s, the language movement and other ethnic movements.
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But now it is being updated in time bound manner after Supreme Court judgment (2014) to incorporate Assam Accord of 1985 in order to tackle the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh.
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NRC is being updated as per provisions of Citizenship Act, 1955 and Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
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It will include names of person or their descendants whose name appear in NRC 1951 or any of Electoral Rolls up to midnight of 24th March 1971.
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The actual implementation of NRC is done by Statutory Authorities i.e. Local Registrars and District Magistrates appointed by State Government.
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A senior official of State Government functions as State Coordinator and coordinates with Registrar General of Citizen Registration (RGI) in regard to various activities.
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The draft will be published by June 30 which may leave 5 to 10 lakh people, mostly those with the ‘Bangladeshi’ tag, stateless.
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Assam’s neighbours fear some of those declared non-citizens may relocate to their territories to cash in on the demand for cheap labour.
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The sister States often blame Assam for their problems with “illegal migrants” who are ironically indispensable as skilled and unskilled workers.