Assam: Status of 3.87 lakh left out in NRC unclear

Guwahati: In what has raised serious question over the credibility of the authorities engaged in updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the status of nearly 3.87 lakh applicants, who failed to file claim after their names were not included in the final draft, was not known.

Though the state government had decided to conduct an inquiry to find out background and whereabouts of such individuals, security sources said that the inquiry to find the socio-political status of such individuals remained in paper.

The state home department had directed to all the superintendents of police of districts to trace the whereabouts and background of 3.87 applicants who failed to submit claims.

It is significant that on completion of verification of all the applicants, the complete draft NRC was published on July 30, 2018. The draft list included the names of 2,89,83,677 eligible applicants.  The names of 40,07, 707 applicants were left out of the draft NRC. While 36.2 lakh applicants filed their claims to include their names in the final NRC, 3.87 lakh failed to submit claims for inclusion of names.

Meanwhile, sources in the NRC secretariat said that quality control checks are still on and there is possibility of a few hearings in some parts of the state. There is still possibility of exclusion of names from the NRC if any person is found ineligible for getting his or her name included in the citizenship document.

Asserting that entire process was on schedule, sources said that there would be no problem in publishing the final NRC on August 31 as fixed by the Supreme Court.

The officers engaged with the process of updating the NRC are also in constant touch with the government departments including Border Police wing and the Foreigners’ Tribunals so that name of any person, against whom cases are going on in any Tribunal, is not included in the NRC. According to law, name of any person, against whom a case is pending before the Foreigners Tribunals, cannot be included in the NRC.

However, in this regard, the officers are facing a problem because of lack of a proper database of such individuals against whom cases are pending before the Tribunals. The whereabouts of all the individuals against whom cases are pending in the Tribunals are not known and there is every possibility that a section of such people shifting to a different district of the state and submitting application for inclusion of their names in the NRC with forged identity and documents, sources said.

The present process of updating the NRC had started with the setting up of the NRC Coordinator’s Office in 2013 and the actual work in the field started in February, 2015. The more than four year long process under the monitoring of the Supreme Court, will come to an end with the publication of the final NRC on August 31.