Aadhar enrolment for NRC applicants who provided biometrics to be decided by Centre, says minister

Assam’s minister Food and Civil Supplies Ranjeet Kumar Dass on Tuesday said that if those who gave their biometric details during claims and objection of National Register of Citizens (NRC) will get Aadhaar enrolment or nor will be decided by the concerned department of government of India.

Replying to a question of MLa Ashraful Hussain, Dass said that NRC updation is being monitored by the Supreme court of India and if a person who has given biometric details will get Aadhaar or not will be decided by the concerned department of Government of India.

There were around 2743396 people who have submitted their biometric details.


Earlier the Assam government has written to the Centre to unlock the frozen biometric details of people who appeared for claims and objections of NRC.

Locking of biometric details has resulted in these people not getting Aadhaar enrolment.

Around 3.30 Crore had applied for inclusion in NRC, nearly 40 lakh people were excluded in the draft NRC published on July 30 2018.

Around 36.28 lakh have claimed for inclusion and 2 lakh people have registered their objections. These people were called for subsequent hearings where provisions were made to option biometric details.

A senior officer in NRC, who does not want to be named, told ET, “NRC co-ordinator has written to the state government to unlock the same for this hardly matters.”

He added, “Aadhaar does not confer citizenship. Even the NRC does not confer citizenship.”

Some people have complained that due to freezing of biometric details they are exposed to different hardships.

One such person said, “During NRC hearing time the Home & Political department took biometrics details. My family members also gave the details. I have applied thrice for Aadhaar enrolment but UIDAI authority notified me Assam Home and Political department block your Aadhaar.I am a student and having Aadhaar is very important for me"

Another person has added, "For availing several government schemes we need an Aadhaar number however despite repeated attempts I am not getting the Aadhaar as my details are locked.”

The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to dispose of claims and objections over the draft NRC states that the Assam government, along with the Unique Identification Authority of India, will carry out biometric enrollment of the applicants during the process.

According to the SOP sent to district registrars of citizens’ registration, separate IDs based on the biometric data will be generated for people who have made claims to be included in the NRC and those who are facing objections to their inclusion on the draft list. Once the final NRC is published, the people who figure in it will be issued the usual Aadhaar number that is given to the legal residents of the country. In case a person already has the Aadhaar number, and is also a part of the claim or objection process, his or her Aadhaar number will be obtained.