Submit percentage of people not in NRC: SC
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the districtwise percentage of people left out of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
A bench comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi, Navin Sinha and K M Joseph asked NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela to submit the details in a sealed cover on August 28 when the court would take up the matter again.
Over 40 lakh people were excluded from the final NRC draft, which was published on July 30, to determine the citizenship of those living in Assam.
The top court had a day later said no coercive action would be taken against those left out of the draft.
The court asked Hajela to provide copies of the draft NRC to panchayats for the public to access them easily.
It said the forms for claims and objections to NRC will be available from August 20 and their submissions would commence on August 30.
The court said it would not allow any political party or fresh interveners to file objections or suggestions for the Centre’s standard operating procedures (SOPS) for dealing with claims and objections to the draft NRC.
“We are not making any comment or observations at this stage on the SOPS,” the bench said.
The court said the timelines mentioned in the Centre’s SOPS would not be applicable until the court finalizes them.
Justice Gogoi said no when a counsel persisted. “Who will be permitted, we will decide… it is our discretion. It is our privilege,” Gogoi said. He added no political party would be allowed.
The remark was made after Hajela said political parties had earlier been consulted in response to a query from the bench.
The NRC was updated on the top court’s direction to identify illegal migrants. NEW DELHI: Chinese minister of national defence and a member of the Central Military Commission Wei Fenghe is set to visit India from August 21 to 24, during which both sides are expected to discuss measures to deepen the strategic communication between the forces, including the possibility of setting up a hotline between their top military commanders, officials familiar with the development said.
“This is the highest level Chinese functionary we are hosting after the Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April. This meeting will focus on what the leaders had underlined: the need for maintaining strategic communication between the militaries,” said an official.
The Chinese minister will have detailed discussions with his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman and other officials.
The proposal for setting up a hotline would also come up for further discussion and an official,requestinganonymity, said they are looking for resolving the matter by ‘narrowing down the technical differences’.
The technical difference is whether the hotline would be between the two Director Generals of Military Operations of two countries or between the commanders who are in charge of the border areas on either side. “Neither the PLA nor Indian army have any objection to the hotline,” said an official. “After Wuhan there were military delegations from both sides visiting each other. There are improved contacts,” an official said. Former Northern Army commander Lt General BS Jaswal (retd) said that India and China always have cordial strategic exchanges at the higher echelons, but friction at the ground has still not been controlled.
“The differences regarding the boundary question need to be ironed out because these small issues tend to flare up from the tactical spectrum to strategic strains,” Jaswal added.