GUWAHATI: Assam cabinet on Wednesday cleared a stringent standard operating procedure for Aadhaar enrolment verification in the state, which includes mandatory submission of the NRC application receipt number by the applicant. Applications without the NRC application receipt number will be rejected.
CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “From today, just applying for an Aadhaar card will not mean getting one… As a result of this SOP, we will be able to create an environment that will prevent doubtful citizens from getting this UID.”
Central government employees having domicile in other states but posted in Assam have been exempted from this rule.
Sarma had announced in Sept that a more stringent verification process for Aadhaar enrolment would be put in place after it was found that in certain districts with a significant Muslim population, the number of Aadhaar card holders was more than the total population of the districts.
Official data shows that in Barpeta, Aadhaar cardholders are 103.74% of the population, in Dhubri 103.48%, in Morigaon 101.76%, and in Nagaon about 100.86%, raising concerns that suspected foreign nationals may have managed to procure the cards.
