The first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam has listed 19 million people out of the 32.9 million applicants as legal Indian citizens.
Assam is the only State that had prepared an NRC in 1951.
It has also now become the first State to get the first draft of its own updated NRC.
The Register is meant to establish the credentials of a bona fide citizen as distinguished from a foreigner.
This is to detect Bangladeshi migrants who may have illegally entered Assam after the midnight of March 24, 1971.
This cut-off date was originally agreed to in the 1985 Assam Accord.
Updating of NRC 1951 is one of the commitment of Assam as per Assam Accord.
A six-year agitation demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants was launched by the All Assam Students’ Union in 1979.
It culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985, in the presence of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.