Minister of State for Home Affairs, G. Kishan Reddy on March 17, stated that 10 inmates of Assam’s six detention centres, where declared/convicted foreigners are kept, died in different hospitals from March 1, 2019 to February 29, 2020, reports The Telegraph. He stated in Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament), “Ten inmates of the six detention centres in Assam, where declared foreigners/ convicted foreigners are kept, died in different hospitals from 1st March, 2019 to 29th February, 2020”.The Minister also said that there were six detention centres in Assam, having a total capacity of 3,331 people (Tezpur 797, Silchar 479, Dibrugarh 680, Jorhat 670, Kokrajhar 335 and Goalpara 370). He also added that “A detention centre at Matia in Goalpara District with a capacity of 3,000 is under construction.” He also said that there was no National Register of Citizens (NRC) detention camp/centre is Assam.
Earlier on March 11, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai had stated that there were 802 persons in the detention centres of Assam on March 6, down from 1,043 inmates in November, adds The Telegraph. This decline is being attributed by those in the know to the Supreme Court order last May for conditional release of those who have spent more than three years in the centres.
The NRC authorities have put on hold its decision to issue rejection certificates to the 1.9 Million people because of Corona virus epidemic, reports The Telegraph. Sources said the NRC authorities here have got the names of these people from the deputy commissioners who had been asked a few weeks ago to check whether declared foreigners, D-voters or people with cases pending in foreigners’ tribunals have got into the final NRC.