The Manipur Assembly has resolved to implement the National Register of Citizens and establish a State Population Commission. The resolutions were raised on August 5, the last day of the budget session of the 60-member House.
Key highlights
- At least 19 apex tribal organisations and their affiliates had on July 12 written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, demanding NRC and other mechanisms to insulate the indigenous people from the ever-increasing number of non-local residents.
- The hills are primarily inhabited by the Scheduled Tribes while the valley districts, comprising one-tenth of Manipur’s geographical area, are dominated by the non-tribal Meitei people.
- A sizable section of the hill dwellers belonging to the Kuki-Chin group is believed to have settled down in Manipur from adjoining Myanmar.
- The inflow has reportedly increased after the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021.
- To date, Assam is the only northeastern State to have implemented the NRC.
- In June, the Manipur government approved 1961 as the base year for identifying ‘natives’ and effectively implementing the inner-line permit (ILP), a temporary travel document residents of other Indian States need to posses to enter the State.
- The Centre had extended the Bengal Easter Frontier Regulation of 1873 to Manipur, thereby making it the fourth State in the Northeast to be brought under the ILP.
What is an Inner Line Permit (ILP)?
- Inner Line Permit (ILP) is an official travel document issued by the concerned state governments to allow inward travel of an Indian citizen into a protected area for a limited period.
- It is obligatory for Indian citizens from outside those states to obtain a permit for entering into the protected state.
- The document is an effort by the government to regulate movement to certain areas located near the international border of India.
- This is an offshoot of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulations, 1873, which protected Crown’s interest in the tea, oil and elephant trade by prohibiting “British subjects” from entering into these “Protected Areas” (to prevent them from establishing any commercial venture that could rival the Crown’s agents).
- The word “British subjects” was replaced by Citizen of India in 1950. Despite the fact that the ILP was originally created by the British to safeguard their commercial interests, it continues to be used in India, officially to protect tribal cultures in northeastern India.
- There are different kinds of ILP’s, one for tourists and others for people who intend to stay for long-term periods, often for employment purposes. ILP’s valid for tourism purposes are granted as a matter of routine.
- The system is in force today in four Northeastern states — Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur— and no Indian citizen can visit any of these states unless he or she belongs to that state, nor can he or she overstay beyond the period specified in the ILP.
What is an NRC?
- The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register containing names of all genuine Indian citizens. At present, only Assam has such a register.
- The NRC in Assam is basically a list of Indian citizens living in the state. The citizens’ register sets out to identify foreign nationals in the state that borders Bangladesh.
- The process to update the register in Assam began following a Supreme Court order in 2013, with the state’s nearly 33 million people having to prove that they were Indian nationals prior to March 24, 1971.
- In Assam, one of the basic criteria was that the names of applicant’s family members should either be in the first NRC prepared in 1951 or in the electoral rolls up to March 24, 1971.
- The Citizenship Act, 1955 states that anyone born in India on or after January 26, 1950 up till July 1, 1987 is an Indian citizen by birth. Anyone born on or after July 1, 1987 but before the commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 and either of whose parents is an Indian citizen at the time of his birth is an Indian citizen.
- And anyone born after the commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 and both of whose parents are Indian citizens at the time of his birth is an Indian citizen.
- The only exception to this was Assam where as per the 1985 Assam Accord foreigners who came to the state up to March 24, 1971 were to be regularised as Indian citizens. Seen in this context, only Assam was allowed to take in foreigners up to March 24, 1971. For the rest of the country, those born outside the country after January 26, 1950 and residing in India without proper documents is a foreign, illegal immigrant.
- Such persons are subject to laws like the the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and tribunals are already empowered to detect, detain and deport them.
