Guwahati: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the BJP wants to pursue a package where it wants delimitation of constituencies, implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and 1951 cut-off date for the determination of foreigners.
“Officially cut-off date for detecting foreigners in Assam is 1971. The Assam government inked the agreement where 1971 was accepted as the base year,” Sarma told reporters on Saturday.
According to the Assam Accord, signed after a six-year anti-foreigners’ movement, led by AASU, the cut-off date for detecting foreigners in Assam is March 24, 1971. AASU led the movement from 1979-1985.
A constitution bench of the Supreme Court has observed that it will examine the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act before looking into deeper citizenship matters pertaining to Assam. Under this section, people who entered India between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, and have been living in Assam, will be allowed to register themselves as citizens.
Last month, the Election Commission announced the delimitation exercise of assembly and parliamentary constituencies in Assam using the 2001 census figures. The state government has decided to merge four new districts with respective original undivided districts.
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