Let us verify 20 per cent names in NRC: Centre, state tell SC

Guwahati: In what is suspected to be a move to delay the publication of National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Central and Assam governments have jointly pleaded before the Supreme Court to allow them to reverify 20 per cent of names included in the draft NRC in the districts bordering Bangladesh and 10 per cent in other districts.

The affidavit, which was submitted before the apex court on July 8, argued that it was necessary to reverify at least 20 per cent of the names included in the draft NRC of bordering districts where the incidence of illegal migration was higher and also in the districts, which reported higher population growth in comparison to the state's average.  It has also prayed for 10 per cent sample reverification in the remaining districts of the state. However, the apex court is yet to take hearing on the affidavit.

In its detailed petition, the state government has further pleaded before the court to appoint or entrust Class I officers of the rank of circle registrar of citizenship registration or above from a different district, who are well versed with the NRC updating process for reverification.

The state government also requested the apex court for fixing the neutral place for sample reverification in order to avoid local influence, bias, threat, etc. The state government has also prayed for modifying the date of publication of the final NRC from July 31 to any future date as deemed fit by the Supreme Court. The Government of India, on its part, had also submitted a petition before the Supreme Court with the same prayers on July 7.

The petition of the Central and the state governments has been seen as an attempt to delay the publication of the NRC as All Assam Students' Union (AASU) chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said that the people of Assam wanted an NRC free from the names of foreign nationals and “we have full faith that we will get a correct NRC under the supervision of the Supreme Court”.

Pointing out that the process of updating the NRC is being monitored by the Supreme Court, he said that with their affidavits, the state and Central governments have admitted that their machinery failed to carry out the job properly. He further questioned whether the government officials engaged in the job failed to strictly implement the orders of the Supreme Court, which forced the government to put forward such prayers before the court.

The AASU chief adviser further pointed out that during the process of submission of claims and objections on the draft NRC, the government, on its own, could have filed objections on inclusion of any name in the draft, which was not done. He also alleged that even during the process of updating the NRC, the government had transferred key officials, which also affected the process.

Meanwhile, the Central government has directed the states to construct model detention centres, detailing the facilities that should be made available there.

The Central government has also circulated a manual on model detention centre.