GUWAHATI: In view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the Central forces deployed in Assam for National Register of Citizens (NRC) work will not be withdrawn.
The Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, said the Home Secretary had passed directions that the 167 companies deployed in Assam will continue to remain in the state.
Earlier, SC came down heavily on the Centre over the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) process and said it is hell-bent on not allowing the work to continue.
The Centre had submitted to the top court that the work on the National Register of Citizens in Assam will have to be suspended for a while in view of redeployment of Central forces for the Lok Sabha elections, reasoning that during the polls, the political atmosphere is likely to be highly surcharged and it may not be conducive for hearing NRC cases.
However, the top court, which is overlooking the work on updating the NRC, said it cannot extend the July 31 deadline fixed for the publication of final NRC.
The draft National Register of Citizens for Assam was published on July 30, 2018, in which the names of 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore people were included. The names of 40,70,707 people did not figure in the list. Of these, 37,59,630 names have been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 are on hold.
