IMPHAL, Sept 7: The Manipur Legislative Assembly on Monday resolved that 1951 would be the base year for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state, with Home Minister Govindas Konthoujam saying the government would pursue the matter with the Centre.
Replying to Opposition MLA K Meghachandra Singh, Konthoujam said the government was tracing the original physical records of the 1951 NRC and would take up the matter with the Centre. He clarified that the state government could not implement the NRC without the Centre’s approval.
The minister said the Manipur State Population Commission, constituted following an Assembly resolution in 2022, was already in place. He said the government had repeatedly pursued the NRC issue with the Centre, including after the Assembly reaffirmed its earlier resolution in March 2024. The House unanimously reaffirmed its decisions on NRC updation on September 2.
Konthoujam said the process needed to be handled cautiously, citing the legal complications surrounding Assam’s NRC exercise.
Replying to another question, he said 24,475 illegal immigrants had been detected in Manipur, including 14,370 in Chandel, 6,545 in Kamjong and 3,560 in Tengnoupal.
He said 14,992 of them had been pushed back to Myanmar, while the rest remained in temporary shelters. In Kamjong, 5,378 had been pushed back and 1,167 remained in government camps. In Tengnoupal, 14 had been pushed back and 3,546 remained under supervision along the international border. In Chandel, 9,600 had been pushed back, while 4,770 remained, with biometric records collected from 1,308.
The minister said verification efforts had been disrupted by the violence that erupted in May 2023. The government had directed Deputy Commissioners to segregate detected illegal immigrants from local Indian communities.
