Union Home Minister Amit Shah has told Parliament that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be implemented nationwide. He informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that no person, no matter what religion he or she followed, needed to be afraid.
In Assam, the updated final NRC, which validates bonafide Indian citizens, has left out over 19 lakh applicants.
The NRC aims to identify illegal immigrants -- primarily from Bangladesh -- who entered Assam and settled there after March 25, 1971 and deport them to their native country.
Amit Shah said in Parliament that people whose names are missing from the NRC can approach tribunals formed at the tehsil level. The Assam government will provide financial help to those who don't have the money to file pleas, he said.
He said the government would bear the cost of hiring a lawyer.
ON JAMMU AND KASHMIR
Shah also took questions on the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir, whose special status was revoked in August, and said the situation there was normal.
"The situation there was always normal. There were many notions spread all over the world. There is total normalcy prevailing," he claimed. Shah said no one had been killed in police firing since August 5, and that the government would restore Internet connections in Kashmir as soon as the local administration saw fit to do so.