STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The State Government has issued instructions to the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) in Assam to expedite the hearings into the pending cases of ‘D’ voters and send notices to the persons concerned. This directive assumes importance with the NRC work on and against the backdrop of several persons still having the ‘D’ tag against their names. The order further gains in significance with the general elections due to be held in India between April and May 2019 to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha.
According to rule, the ‘D’ voters can neither contest any elections nor cast votes in any elections conducted under the Constitution of India.
There are 100 FTs in the State. Of them, 36 are permanent while 64 are ‘Additional FTs’. As per the Guwahati High Court directive, the Additional FTs were set up in the State. The terms of the Additional FTs would be coming to an end in the middle part of 2019. Usually, they are given extensions of two years.
As per the recent ‘draft photo electoral roll of 2019’ published on September 15, 2018, there are a total of 1,19,559 ‘D’ voters in the State.
The concept of ‘D’ voters was first introduced in Assam in 1997 during an intensive summary revision of the electoral roll in the State. Assam is the only State in India where the ‘D’-voter concept is in use. There were then 2,20,209 ‘D’ voters in Assam in 1997.
On the other hand, work on updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) commenced in Assam in 2015. The NRC authorities have kept the names of ‘D’ voters on hold till the Foreigners Tribunals’ verdicts declaring them either as Indians or as foreigners.