Guwahati: The Assam cabinet on Monday said people whose names do not figure in the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) will not be kept in detention centres.

"There is fear among people that those whose names do not figure in the NRC will be kept in detention centres. We want to clarify that such people will not be kept in detention centres. They will be able to stay like others and fight their cases in foreigners tribunals or courts," cabinet minister Chandra Mohan Patowary told the media after a cabinet meeting here on Monday afternoon.

The 1951 NRC is being updated only in Assam to solve its foreigners problem. Its complete draft will be published on July 30. The final NRC will be published after resolving all claims and objections.

The cabinet decision came a day after Union home minister Rajnath Singh said in New Delhi after a meeting with Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal that "there is no question of anyone being put in a detention centre after the publication of NRC."

Fuelling apprehensions of detention was the Centre's approval to set up a new detention centre in lower Assam's Goalpara district with a capacity to house 3,000 detainees.

"The people whose names will not be in the complete draft NRC need not panic. They will get an opportunity to raise their claims and objections to include their names in the final NRC. Even if one's name is not in the final NRC, one will be given the opportunity to fight his/her case in foreigners tribunals and then higher courts," Patowary said.

Districts which have completed NRC update have started releasing government employees from NRC duties. The deputy commissioner of south Assam's Hailakandi district has issued an order releasing all government employees, including district magistrate-authorised officers, investigating officers, special verification officers, assisting staff and Grade IV staff from their assigned NRC work with immediate effect on completion of the process of update of the draft NRC. However, statutory officers and field level officers have not been exempted from NRC duty.

In a related development, the Assam State Jamiat Ulama said the Supreme Court on Monday referred their case (No. 21368/2018), challenging an order of NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela not to include the names of declared foreigners in the NRC, to the bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi.