Assam governor: Expedite National Register of Citizens update process

Guwahati: Assam governor PB Acharya has appealed to the state government to speed up the update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The governor said the deadline has been postponed twice and it is high time.
The governor has also expressed his desire to extend his help, if required, in case any constraints are hindering the process.
PB Acharya, who is also the governor of Nagaland, has said that despite two extensions for the completion of NRC, it could not be published on time.
"The time has been extended again and it needs to be insured that this time, it is completed without further delay," PB Acharya said in a statement.
Acharya added that considering it a national security issue, officers and employees entrusted with the work should take the task more seriously.
"The recently concluded Assam assembly election was supposed to have been conducted on the basis of a correct NRC, which, however, was not possible," the governor said. The governor emphasized that a correct NRC would enable the government to detect ‘unauthorized foreigners' living in the state.
"It should be a joint responsibility of all citizens to cooperate in its timely completion," he said.
The governor has asked the state coordinator of NRC if the latter could arrange the forwarding of weekly status reports, submitted every weekend, regarding the progress.
On the closure of the receipt phase of NRC application forms on August 31, 2015, altogether 68 lakh applications covering 107% households (with reference to the 2011 census) have been received across the state.