Senior officials review law and order situation of Assam before publication of NRC

Senior government officials of Assam on Friday has reviewed the law and order situation of four districts ahead of the publication of the next draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) which is scheduled to be released on June 30, said officials.

Officials led by Chief Secretary T Y Das and Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia had reviewed the law and order and internal security situation of the central Assam districts of Nagaon, Morigaon, Hojai and the hill district of West Karbi Anglong.

This is the fourth meeting of the officials, who will visit all the districts of Assam before the publication of the draft NRC, the officials said.

Besides the Chief Secretary and DGP, the team of officials comprised of the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Alok Kumar, Principal Secretary (Home) L Changson, Special DGP(SB) Pallab Bhattacharya, ADGP (Security) Harmeet Singh and IGP(Law and Order) Deepak Kumar, said an official release.

The deputy commissioners, superintendents of police and other senior police officials, army and central paramilitary forces were also present in the meeting, which discussed various issues related to the NRC update process.

The importance of constant interaction with the people to allay their apprehension, facilities available in respect of claims and objections for which an exhaustive awareness programme would be launched and other related issues were discussed in the meeting, added the release.

The work of updating NRC has been completed on May 31, but the release of the draft, which is scheduled on June 30, is likely to be delayed due to devastating flood situation in Barak Valley, the officials said.

NRC State coordinator Prateek Hajela has filed a petition before the Supreme Court, under whose supervision the NRC is being updated, asking for more time for the completion of the draft as work on it was affected by the devastating flood.