NRC could be implemented in Uttarakhand says CM Rawat
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has given a big statement. He said that NRC (National Register of Citizens) can also be applicable in the state. Uttarakhand is a strategically important state. Because it borders China and Nepal.
During a program in Dehradun today, the Chief Minister said that NRC can be implemented in Uttarakhand also due to it being a border state. He will consult the cabinet in this regard. He said that NRC will also be implemented in Uttarakhand if required.
What is the purpose of NRC
The objective of NRC is to register genuine citizens of the country and identify illegal migrants. This was first done in Assam in 1951 by the government of Pandit Nehru to pacify the then Chief Minister of Assam, Gopinath Bardoloi. Bardolai was against the settlement of Bengali Hindu refugees who fled East Pakistan in large numbers after partition.
In the 1980s, there was a constant demand for updating NRC by the hardcore regional groups there. An agreement was signed by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1985 to end the Assam Movement, which agreed not to include those coming after 1971 in the NRC.
The state Congress government started updating the NRC in 2010 as a pilot project to remove illegal migrants from two districts of Assam – Barpeta and Kamrup. However, the process came to a standstill after a violent clash in Barpeta. However, NRC work was resumed only after the intervention of the Supreme Court after a petition by a non-governmental organization, Assam Public Works. In 2015, the Assam government resumed NRC work under the supervision of the Supreme Court.
Senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana said that with the NRC issue, the government was trying to cover up its failures. Reacting to state Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat’s statement about NRC, he said that it has annonuced elaborate plans to cover up its failures of three years.
Dhasmana said that “in the past three years, the Trivandra Rawat government has failed on every front. The wheel of development in the state completely derailed. Nobody got employment. Industrial development has come to a complete standstill. Health services are in bad shape. There are locks in government schools. In such a situation, to hide his failures, he has discovered this new jumla. If the Chief Minister feels that intruders and foreigners are living in the state then it should be disclosed.”
