Babul Kumar Hajong can’t avail of the various welfare schemes that the central and Assam governments have launched. Hajong doesn’t have Aadhaar, the biometric ID which is compulsory for availing of most of these schemes. He had applied multiple times for Aadhaar enrolment, but those have been rejected. His biometric details are currently locked, and he can’t get the ID till this issue is resolved.
He is among around 38 lakh people in Assam whose biometric details are locked. These are the people who had made claims and objection about the National Register of Citizens (NRC). They can’t now apply for new Aadhaar enrolment.
The Assam government had written to the Centre, seeking help to unlock the frozen biometric details. But, there is no headway. An official in the NRC authority in the state said a Supreme Court intervention could be required now, as it is monitoring the NRC process. The top court had in 2019 directed that a security regime similar to that provided for Aadhaar be enacted to protect the NRC data, and ordered that the final list of inclusions and exclusions to the register should be given to the state and central governments only after that.
Those who already have Aadhaar are able to avail of the benefits of welfare schemes. But Aadhaar coverage is low in Assam compared with the rest of India, as it was not emphasised on when the NRC update work was going on.
With elections around the corner, people like Hajong expect political parties to take up their cause more seriously. “While people talk about availing of central government schemes, I am not being able to do so,” Hajong told ET. “I have asked several government officials and bank officials, but nobody is able to explain to me as to why I am barred. I have been asking people from different political parties how to get through this stalemate.”
Around 3.30 crore people had applied for inclusion in the NRC, but the names of nearly 40 lakh of them were excluded in the draft NRC published on July 30, 2018. Of them, around 36.28 lakh people had claimed for inclusion on the list and about 2 lakh had registered their objections. They were called for subsequent hearings where provisions were made to obtain their biometric details.
A meeting was held in November last year on the issue in which Assam chief secretary Jishnu Barua and home secretary Gyanendra Dev Tripathi participated. “We have written to the Government of India to unlock it, we are in touch with and trying to solve the problem,” Tripathi had told ET.
In a response to a query filed under the Right to Information Act by a person whose data are locked said as per the Ministry of Electronic and IT, the “Aadhaar enrolment packets” which have been generat during the NRC biometric enrolment had been kept on hold based on the standard operating procedure guidelines issues by the Registrar General of India (RGI). The home and political department of the Assam government is the registrar for the biometric enrolment exercise of NRC claimants, it informed the applicant, who did not want to be named.
The Assam government has taken up the matter with the RGI, the reply said. Till a clarification is received from the RGI and the matter is communicated to the Uidai, which manages the Aadhaar data, by the home and political department of Assam, Aadhaar number cannot be issued, it said.
“I have applied a couple of times for Aadhaar enrolment but the Uidai notified me that the Assam home and political department had blocked your Aadhaar. I hope some political parties take up our case in this election time,” said another person facing the same problem.
A senior officer in the NRC, who also did not want to be named, told ET: “We are flooded with queries of people asking about the same. Present NRC co-ordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma has written to the state government to unlock the same, for Aadhaar does not confer citizenship and this provision has resulted in immense hardship to the people.”
The Asom Sankhyalaghu Sangram Parishad has pointed out that for want of Aadhaar, people were unable to carry out public transactions. They can’t open bank accounts, while it had also affected issuance of land sale permissions and ration cards, the organisation has said. People are unable to get the funds sanctioned under the Prime Minister Awash Yojana and students are unable to avail of scholarships.
The NRC official said: “The correction now has to come from the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the process and the RGI will have to move the Supreme Court for orders in this regard.”
The official said the RGI can publish the NRC only after it gets the data. “Data can be made available after the creation of the Aadhaar security regime. It will take at least eight to nine months after sanction from the RGI to create the regime. It will require ₹22 lakh to create the regime,” he said.
