The BJP government is mulling introducing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Karnataka, the state’s Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Thursday, 3 October.
“There is a very big talk going on regarding the implementation of NRC across India. Karnataka is one of the states where across the border people are coming and settling down. There are lot of issues here. Therefore we are collecting all the information, we will discuss with the Union Home Minister and then go ahead,” Bommai told reporters in Bengaluru.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had recently asserted that the NRC exercise will be conducted throughout India and all illegal immigrants will be thrown out of the country through legal means.
The Mamata Banerjee-headed TMC government in West Bengal had vowed that the NRC exercise will not be allowed in the state.
On Wednesday, Bommai had told reporters in Haveri that two meetings were held on rolling out the NRC, which has been accepted by a few states.
‘NRC Decision This Week’
He had said, “I've asked senior officials to study the law. In Bengaluru and other big cities, foreigners have come and settled. It has come to our notice they indulge in crime, and some of them have been arrested as well.”
He continued, “We will take a clear decision (on NRC) this week.”
When it was in the Opposition, the BJP had been raising its voice on the increasing number of Bangladeshi migrants in Bengaluru.
‘No Need For NRC in Karnataka’: KPCC President
Reacting to Bommai’s remarks, KPCC Working President Eshwar Khandre said he thinks there is no need for NRC in Karnataka. "There is police, there is law and order, there is everything, if there are any illegal immigrants, they will be acted upon as per the law.”
He added, “NRC is a big exercise, for which hundreds of crores will be spent. Along with that, there can be a sentiment among a section of the population that feels that despite them being born and living there. That is why, according to me, there is no need for NRC in Karnataka.”
In Assam, the only state in the country where the exercise was carried out to update the NRC, names of over 19 lakh people were omitted from the final list which was published on 31 August. Out of them, about 12 lakh are Hindus.
The NRC is “a must” for national security and will be implemented, Shah recently said in Kolkata but made clear that Hindu, Sikh, Jain, and Buddhist refugees will be accorded Indian citizenship beforehand with the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
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