Guwahati: No person above eighteen will get fresh Aadhaar cards in Assam from September 2025 onwards. The Assam government on August 21 barred issuing fresh Aadhaar cards to any person except ST, SC and Tea Garden community. Announcing the decision after a cabinet meeting CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the step has been taken so that no infiltrators can exploit illegal means to obtain Aaadhaar. But there are some genuine cases where the Aadhaar saturation is not 100 per cent amongst the ST, SC and Tea Garden community. So it will be open for them for another year. Anybody else above 18 has to approach the District Collector (DC) for approval to obtain a fresh Aadhar. The window is open for September and who has not obtained it can apply within the next month, the CM added.
He further said that the illegal infiltration from Bangladesh is still not 100 percent checked. So the decision is to ensure that no intruders can get access to an Aadhar card from Assam. The Aadhar saturation in Assam is 103 percent. So any adult, except ST, SC and Tea community, will be a news entrant in the state. Even if someone applies to the DC for a fresh Aadhar, the district collector has to verify the Special Branch (SB) police report and foreigners tribunal report before issuing the Aadhar, CM Sarma said.
The Chicken Neck Conspiracy
CM Sarma also revealed that there is a huge conspiracy ongoing against India in the chicken neck area which connects Northeast with mainland India. Most of the settlers in the 22 kilometer stretch of the chicken neck are originally from Bangladesh or East Pakistan. They may now be Indian citizens as per law but they always have a soft corner for their origin country. Now a group of hardliner Islamist organisations in Bangladesh are trying to incite these people and activating sleeper cells which are working to create an anti-India sentiment amongst these people. This includes distribution of literatures, social media posts, whatsapp groups, messages and phone calls etc. Assam police have busted such modules recently in Dhubri district. CM Sarma said we are sitting on fire. It is alright till there is no conflict with Bangladesh, but in case of a conflict a large section of people originally from Bangladesh will show their loyalty to which side is a big question. The CM said that the next 20 years will be very critical for Assam and needs very strong monitoring to avert any danger.
