Maintaining that illegal infiltrators pose a major threat to internal security, President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday said the Centre has decided to implement the process of 'National Register of Citizens' (NRC) on a priority basis in areas affected by infiltration.
"Illegal infiltrators pose a major threat to our internal security. This is leading to a social imbalance in many parts of the country, as well as putting huge pressure on limited livelihood opportunities.
"My Government has decided to implement the process of 'National Register of Citizens' on priority basis in areas affected by infiltration. Security along the border will be further strengthened to prevent infiltration," he said in his address to the joint sitting of Parliament.
Kovind asserted that the government is committed to protecting the victims of religious persecution for which necessary efforts will be made to amend the Citizenship Act.
"While on the one hand, the Government is working to identify the infiltrators, on the other, it is also fully committed to protecting the victims of persecution due to their faith. In this regard, efforts will be made to amend the Citizenship Act while protecting the linguistic, cultural and social identities," he said.
NRC is a register containing names of Indian citizens, which was prepared for the only time in 1951 and is being updated for only Assam to weed out the illegal immigrants.
The Supreme Court-monitored NRC exercise, aimed at identifying illegal immigrants in the state that borders Bangladesh, was carried out only in Assam, which faced an influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century.
When the draft NRC was published on July 30, 2018, there was a huge controversy over the exclusion of 40.7 lakh people from it. The draft NRC included the names of 2.9 crore people out of the total 3.29 crore applications. The final list of the NRC will be published on July 31, 2019.
The Parliament's Budget Session, which began on June 17, will continue till July 26. The Economic Survey will be presented on July 4 followed by the Union Budget for 2019-20 on July 5.
( With inputs from ANI )