Assam: Additional draft of NRC to be published on Jun 15

The NRC contains names of Indian citizens of Assam and it was first prepared in 1951, after 1951 Census of India. Last year in July around 40 lakh people in Assam have been left out of the complete NRC draft that was released, virtually refusing to recognise them as Indian nationals till they are able to prove their citizenship. 

Assam police have taken adequate security measures ahead of publication of the additional draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).  

Assam DGP Kuladhar Saikia said that, if require Assam police will provide additional forces to maintain law and order situation.

“Full proof security will be provided and it is in the place already. We are providing such type of security measures all throughout since the NRC process was started. If require, we will reinforce it. The whole process goes on well and the people do come forward to take help of the NRC process. All the safety and security measures should there and it will be reinforced if required. We will not allow any untoward situation to happen. Nobody will allow to take law in their hand. We are ready for any challenges,” the Assam DGP said.

Before the publication of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC), the NRC authorities will publish an additional draft of NRC on Jun 15 next.

The Supreme Court has directed the State Coordinator, NRC of Assam and the Union Home ministry to publish the final updated NRC by Jul 31 this year.

The office of the State Coordinator, NRC said in the letter no SPMU/NRC/Dist-Co-Equip/68/2015/Pt-6/374 that, the Supreme Court has approved to publish the proposed additional draft under Clause 5 of the Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 on June 15.

The additional draft list will contain the names of applicants who were included in the draft published on Jul 30, 2018 but were later found to be ineligible for inclusion in the citizens’ register during suo motu verification done by the NRC authorities and the the suo motu verification was done as per Section 4 (3) of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

According to the office of the State Coordinator, NRC, the person who found ineligible for inclusion in the NRC during the suo motu verification will be informed through a notice and it will be sent to the residence of the person.

They will be given an opportunity to file claims for inclusion of their names in the updated NRC and they will have to file their claims by Jun 30.

The NRC updating process is going on in Assam under monitoring of the Supreme Court to detect the illegal foreigners residing in the state.

The complete draft of NRC, containing names of 28,983,677 out of 32,991,384 applicants, was published on Jul 30 last year.

Around 40.07 lakh people were left out from the complete draft of NRC and nearly 36 lakh people have filed their claims for inclusion their names in the final NRC.

On the other hand, around 2 lakh objections were also filed against inclusion of ineligible persons in the complete draft of NRC.

The hearing of claims and objections are underway across the state.

(By Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati)