After Assam, Karnataka mulls NRC introduction

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka, which houses India's Information Technology hub Bengaluru, is mulling introduction of the National Register of Citizens in the state, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Thursday.

Karnataka is one of the states where people from across the border are coming and settling down. There are lot of issues here. Therefore, we are collecting all the information. We will discuss with the federal Home Minister and then go ahead," Bommai told reporters in Haveri.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah has repeatedly asserted that the NRC exercise will be conducted throughout India and all illegal immigrants thrown out of the country through legal means.

Bommai said two meetings were held on the roll-out of the NRC which has been accepted by a few states.

"I've asked senior officials to study the law. In Bengaluru and other big cities, foreigners have come and settled. It has come to our notice they indulge in crime and some of them have been arrested as well. We will take a clear decision (on NRC) this week," he said.

When it was in the opposition in Karnataka, the BJP has been raising its voice against the increasing number of Bangladeshi immigrants in Bengaluru.

Assam, now ruled by the BJP, is the only Indian state to have the NRC, a list of Indian citizens, so far and the saffron party is demanding that the same be introduced in West Bengal, Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra.

The final NRC in Assam published on August 31 left out 19.6 lakh people including 11 lakh Hindus.