Demand for NRC in Mizoram too

Aizawl, July 20 (IANS) Except the Congress, all the local parties in Mizoram are demanding introduction of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the Christian-dominated state which shares border with Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), in its manifesto for the Assembly elections in November last year, had promised that it would initiate the exercise of NRC in the state on the lines of Assam.

The MNF is a constituent North East Democratic Alliance, a BJP-floated grouping of non-Congress parties.

The MNF pledge came in the wake of several non-governmental organisations in Mizoram demanding an NRC to detect illegal immigrants after Assam published the final draft of the NRC in July last year.

The NRC, first published in Assam in 1951, is being updated as per directions of the Supreme Court to segregate Indian citizens living in Assam from those who have illegally entered the state from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971.

On May 18, the Mizoram Assembly unanimously passed a bill to create a register of all households in the state.

While introducing the Mizoram Maintenance of Household Registers Bill, 2019, Chief Minister Zoramthanga said the bill was necessitated by "the influx of foreigners into Mizoram through its porous borders".

"In many cases the benefits of development and welfare programmes are found eaten away to a large extent by such foreigners," reads the bill's statement of objects and reasons, signed by the chief minister.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while speaking on the NRC issue in Parliament last Tuesday, favoured such an exercise across the country.

The government would deport illegal immigrants from "every inch of the country's soil", Shah said in the House.