NEW DELHI, Feb 25 – In a move that is bound to have a deep impact on the infiltration prone States like Assam, the Central Government proposes to create separate list of doubtful citizens before issuing multi-purpose national identity cards (MPNIC) in a bid to checkmate the illegal immigrants. The move divulged by Deputy Prime Minister, LK Advani in the Lok Sabha this morning, apparently taken out of the Election Commission of India’s book is likely to stir a hornet’s nest given the revulsion to creation of Doubtful List or ‘D’ List as it’s popularly known. In Assam, over 2.65 lakh names continue to remain in the ‘D’ list of the electoral rolls.
Interestingly, a pilot project of the MPNIC is all set to be launched in Patharkandi Revenue Circle of Karimganj district in Assam in April. And according to Union Government’s plan, a ‘D’ list would be created for the doubtful citizens in the district. But the Deputy Prime Minister assured that adequate mechanism is being put in place to avoid harassment of genuine Indian citizens. The doubtful citizens would have right of appeal and their complaints would be verified and disposed off by the district magistrates before the MPNICs are issued, Minister of State for Home ID Swami added.
The Minister of State said a provisional list of citizens along with a list of doubtful citizens would be separately published. Complaints would be disposed off before the final list is published. In what was perhaps the first-ever indication of the Central Government’s plans, the Deputy Prime Minister disclosed that Registrar General of India and Census Department would be closely involved with the MPNIC scheme, as would be the civil administration of the States.
The Government would issue an order notifying the RGI and Directorate of Census as the nodal agencies for the Scheme. At the Central level RGI would be nodal agency and at the State level the Director of Census, while at the district-level the district magistrates would be nodal authorities. The RGI would also be entrusted with the responsibility of preparing and maintaining a National Register of Indian Citizens, he added.
Sri Advani clarified that the Census department was involved because it was the only organisation with some experience in such operations. And like the census operation there would be house-to-house surveys. At the village level the revenue staff like ‘patowaries’ besides ‘gaon panchayats’ would be involved.
The stress on involvement of the civil administration officials was considered significant in the face of the apprehension that involvement of the police would lead to harassment of genuine citizens. He also assured that bona-fide people in the border areas would not be subjected to harassment by security forces. The Deputy Prime Minister also asserted that it was wrong to suggest that issue of MPNIC Scheme was mainly to detect and deport the illegal immigrants.
Earlier, assuaging the fears of the members particularly those belonging to the Opposition, Sri Advani said that this was a very ambitious scheme and the proposal is to give multi-purpose identity cards to all citizens. “It is something that is not taken up by any country in the world except China,” he added.
“This is going to be massive operation and its success hinges on the cooperation of the State Governments,” Sri Advani said. Replying to a question, Sri Swami said that rules are being framed and the process would start from the panchayat level to state-level. He also divulged that provisions of the Citizenship Act are being finalised to cover all apprehensions.
The Minister said that main purpose behind launching the pilot projects in 13 States including two North Eastern States was to experiment with the scheme and to evaluate the various experiences to be gained from the exercise. The pilot project is estimated to cost Rs 18 crore, the Minister revealed. The MPNIC scheme involves creation of an identification system for more than one billion citizens, streamlining the existing machinery for the registration of births and deaths at the grass-root level and choices of institutional as well as technological options for creation of an integrated database of personal identities capable of being continuously updated.
In Tripura, the only other State in the North-east to be selected for the project, the scheme would be launched in East-West Agartala, Lankamura, Barajala and Indiranagar Tehsils. Earlier, senior Congress MP Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said that while on one hand the scheme creates confidence on the internal security front, on the other, it has led to apprehensions. He underlined that the scheme should be launched in border areas and border districts first to check illegal migrants. But he added that the Centre should ensure that police do not misuse its power to harass genuine citizens. He charged that Delhi and Harayana police harassed Bengali-speaking people in the name of detection of illegal migrants. The Congress MP also wanted a clarification whether the Central Government was adhering to the Indira-Mujib pact while implementing the MPNIC scheme.