Those excluded in Assam get another chance to register in NRC

Guwahati, Aug 11: For those 40 lakh people whose names did not appear in the Final Draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on July 31 in Assam, can do so now through the 2500 RC Sewa Kendras set up for the purpose.

The process began on Friday when thousands of such ‘doubtful’ persons thronged the NRC Sewa Kendra throughout Assam to get their names included in the NRC.

According to agency reports chaos prevailed at most of these centres for want of sufficient staff to handle the surging crowd.

The NRC authorities had earlier said that the sewa kendras will be active from August 7 to enable the persons to know the reasons for non-inclusion of their names and file their claims and objections till September 30. The people can file their claims and objections in the prescribed forms available at the NRC Sewa Kandra and submit them from August 30 to September 28. Every such Sewa Kendra is supposed to cater to the 10 villages.

The final draft of NRC included the names of 2,89,836,77 persons. The names of 40,07,707 persons were missing due to some ‘discrepancies’. A total of 32,991,384 persons had applied for inclusion of their names.

The Supreme Court, monitoring the updating of the NRC, has ordered the state government, in consultation with State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela, to frame a ‘fair’ standard operating procedure to deal with claims and objections on the draft NRC.

The Sewa Kendras are distributing the claim and correction forms to the people from Friday. NRC officials could not specify how many forms were collected, but they expect the pace of collecting forms to pick up within a week.

Preparation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam is a long-drawn-out process and that the government has completed only less than one-third work on it, senior Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at Agartala on Friday.

“People whose names are missing from the NRC can apply again with valid documents. Then there are the courts to file objections later. There is no need to panic or create unrest,” Sarma said.

“By the time it is completed, the people’s perception on it may change,” said Sarma, the state’s Health and Finance Minister.

“Only 30 per cent work of NRC in Assam is completed. On the basis of that, people should not come to any final conclusion,” he said.

Sarma asked the various tribal organizations in Tripura to wait as the exercise is completed in Assam and then demand the same for their state.

“First let us do it successfully in Assam. Let Supreme Court find out the credibility. We have spent Rs 100 crore for the task, now let us wait for the result before jumping to any conclusion,” Sarma said.