Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday assured his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would have “no impact on Bangladesh” and there was no need to be worried about it.
He gave the assurance at a meeting with Hasina at Lotte New York Palace hotel on the sidelines of the 74th UN General Assembly on Friday, the Daily Star reported.
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Briefing reporters after the meeting, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said the talks were held in a very cordial and friendly environment.
He said bilateral concerns like the issues of NRC and water-sharing of the common rivers, including the Teesta, were discussed at the meeting.
Raising the NRC issue, Hasina said it has become a matter of great concern for Bangladesh.
In his reply, Modi said issues like the NRC and water-sharing could be taken care of very easily as the relations between Bangladesh and India were very good.
Modi assured Hasina that Indian officials would work to resolve the issues and said Bangladesh need not worry about it.
Foreign Minister Momen said there had been no detailed discussion at the meeting as the two leaders were going to have a bilateral meeting in New Delhi on October 5.
The final National Register of Citizens (NRC) list in Assam was published on August 31, including names of 3.1 crore people and leaving out 19 lakh names.
The publication of the citizens’ list is aimed at identifying whether a person residing in Assam is actually an Indian or a foreigner.
The NRC is a list of all citizens domiciled in Assam and is being updated to retain bonafide citizens within the state and evict illegal settlers, purportedly migrants from Bangladesh.
The final NRC list came 13 months after the Complete Draft NRC was published on July 30 last year.
The list was updated – for the first time since 1951 – by the Registrar General of India in a Supreme Court-monitored exercise.
