New Delhi: Demanding enrollment of 27 lakh people in Assam in Aadhaar, Assam Public Works (APW), the main petitioner in the National Register of Citizens (NRC), has approached the Supreme Court seeking directives to unlock the biometric data of those people whose biometrics were collected during the course of hearing of claims and objections of NRC process. Talking to ETV Bharat, APW president Abhijeet Sharma said that biometric details of over 27 lakh applicants were collected during the claims and objections period of the NRC exercise.
"Out of these applicants, names of about 19 lakh applicants were not included in the supplementary list of inclusions published in August 2019. The biometric data of these over 27 lakh applicants have been locked since then. And due to this, UIDAI has not been able to generate their Aadhaar cards and they can't now apply for new Aadhaar enrollment," said Sharma.
While filing the affidavit in the apex court on Tuesday, APW has appealed to the apex court to direct the concerned authorities to issue Aadhaar numbers to the person whose biometrics were collected during the course of hearing of claims and objection to the NRC process. Asserting that the Aadhaar number of 27 lakh people can only be issued after their biometrics information was taken during the NRC process is unlocked by authorities, Sharma said that these people are suffering due to unlocking of biometric data and non-issuance of Aadhaar numbers to them.
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"We request the State government to file an affidavit or to support our affidavit on Aadhaar," said Sharma. He said that the non-issuance of Aadhaar has deprived all these people of getting even basic government facilities. Aadhaar is eligible for adults, Baal Aadhaar is for children below 5 years. NRIs and foreigners staying in India for more than 12 months are eligible for Aadhaar. But the irony is that in spite of being genuine Indians, lakhs of people are deprived of getting their Aadhaar number," said Sharma.
Referring to NRC re-verification process, the APW president further said that his organization will file a fresh affidavit in the Supreme Court seeking re-verification of NRC in 23 districts of the State. "We don't want re-verification of NRC across Assam. We want such re-verification only in those districts where we have doubt," said Sharma.
It may be mentioned here that the BJP government in Assam has also been exploring possibilities of re-verification of the entire NRC process. The government claims that the names of illegal foreigners have been included in the updated NRC. The APW, however, wants recertification in only 23 districts including Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Chirang, South Salmara, Mankachar, Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Barpeta, Nalbari, Kamrup, Kamrup (Metro), Darrang, Udalguri, Sontipur, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Morigaon, Nagaon, Hojai, Golaghat, Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi.
