The Assam government on Monday clarified Aadhaar, the biometric identification number, is not linked to the exercise of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) .
Assam is one of three states where Aadhaar has not been introduced yet. The other two states are Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir.
Aadhaar in Assam was deferred after several students and social organisations demanded its implementation only after the NRC updating exercise, started in 2013, is over.
Replying to several questions in the State assembly on behalf of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Industries and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had abandoned its decision to introduce Aadhaar registration in December last year.
“UIDAI instead asked the State government to handle the process of issuing Aadhaar cards. Accordingly, we have decided to set up 1,241 centres for Aadhaar enrolment within March this year,” Mr. Patowary said.
He allayed fears that those left out of NRC, updated with the names of only those who have been residing in or entered Assam before the midnight of March 24, 1971, would not be eligible for Aadhaar.
“Aadhaar and NRC cannot be cannot. The rules are very clear; they say Aadhaar number shall not confer any right or be proof of citizenship or domicile,” Mr. Patowary said.
The first draft of the updated NRC was published at the stroke of midnight on December 31 with the names of 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore total applicants in Assam, recognising them as legal citizens of India.
Answering another question related to citizenship, Mr Patowary said there are 899 inmates as on February 8 declared as foreigners across six detention camps in Assam. These people were detected by 100 Foreigners’ Tribunals and are set to be deported.
Assam has 6 detention camps were 899 people declared as foreigners are currently lodged for deportation later.
| Detention camp | Number of people |
| Tezpur detention camp | 268 |
| Goalpara detention camp | 251 |
| Kokrajhar detention camp | 154 |
| Jorhat detention camp | 111 |
| Silchar detention camp | 85 |
| Dinbrugarh detention camp | 30 |
