Blocked during NRC process, 9.35 lakh people in Assam to get Aadhaar

Assam CM announces unfreezing of biometrics for 9.35 lakh people to obtain Aadhaar cards, resolving long-standing issue.

GUWAHATI

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Wednesday (August 28, 2024) that the Centre has decided to unfreeze the biometrics of some 9.35 lakh people to enable them to get Aadhaar cards.

The Unique Identification Authority of India was assumed to have blocked access to Aadhaar cards for about 27 lakh people out of some 3.3 crore applicants when the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was being updated. Their biometrics were collected during the claims and objections phase of the process between February and August 2019.

“We were under the impression that the UIDAI had frozen the biometrics of about 27 lakh people but they told us the figure was 9,35,682,” the Chief Minister said, adding the names of these people are included in the NRC.

He said the State Government initially thought these 9.35 lakh people were among the 19.06 lakh people who were excluded from the NRC but later realised their case was not linked to the citizens’ list. “They had the misfortune of applying during the February-August 2019 period when UIDAI applied the freeze,” he said.

“There was no pattern to this Aadhaar-blocking issue. The affected people belong to all ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups. We were not able to correlate Aadhaar and NRC except that some of the NRC centres were used as Aadhaar enrolment centres earlier,” the Chief Minister said.

“On July 29, our government formally requested the Centre to resolve the matter and allow the issuance of Aadhaar cards. Following this appeal, the Centre instructed the UIDAI on August 27 to proceed with the Aadhaar issuance for these individuals,” he said.