The office of the State Coordinator for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on Wednesday published a guide for checking one’s name in the final list to be published on August 31.
The links will be available on NRC website ( www.nrcassam.nic.in ) from August 31 titled ‘Supplementary list of inclusions/exclusions status (final NRC), the authority dealing with the exercise to update the citizens’ list said.
The people who could view the results would be those who submitted a claim after not being included in the complete draft published on July 30, 2018, or excluded via the additional draft exclusions list published on June 26 this year, or had any objection filed against their inclusion, the NRC authority said.
Such people could see their status in the supplementary list of inclusion by visiting their designated NSK (NRC Seva Kendra) or office of the circle officers or deputy commissioners.
The public, the guide said, could also check their status online by typing their Application Receipt Numbers or ARNs.
“Those persons who were included in the complete draft and not excluded by the additional draft exclusions but were called for hearings from July 5, 2019, onwards can also check their status by visiting their designated NSKs and government offices,” an NRC official said on Wednesday.
“People who were not called for any hearings held from July 5, 2019, onwards need not worry about their inclusion status. They continue to be included in the final NRC,” he said.
First NRC
Assam had published the first NRC in 1951. Alleged large-scale illegal immigration from East Pakistan (1947-1971) and Bangladesh since 1971 led to the anti-foreigners’ agitation in 1979 and the signing of the Assam Accord that sought the updating of the 1951 register.
The Centre took the first formal decision to update the NRC in 1999 and a resolution to undertake the exercise was adopted in 2005 in the presence of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
But the push came after Assam Public Works, an NGO, filed a case in the Supreme Court in 2009 claiming 41 lakh foreigners were included in the State’s electoral rolls and sought an updated NRC. A pilot project was launched the following year in Barpeta in western Assam and Chhaygaon near Guwahati.
The Chhaygaon project was successful but violence marred the Barpeta project. It was abandoned after four people – all migrant Muslims – were killed in police firing.
Supreme Court intervention
The Supreme Court intervened to have the NRC exercise started in 2013. Of a total of 3.29 crore applicants, 2.9 crore were incorporated in two phases – the first on December 31, 2017, and the second on July 30, 2018.
This left out 40.07 lakh people from the complete draft. Another 1.02 lakh people were excluded from the 2.9 crore who had made it to the complete draft, taking the total of NRC-excluded people to 41,10,169.
According to a rough estimate by a group of lawyers, who represented stakeholders in NRC-related litigations in the Supreme Court, the final NRC could leave out at least 20 lakh people.
“It could be a coincidence that the number of people currently excluded from the NRC is similar to what was cited in the case that triggered the updating exercise in 1999. But 20 lakh seems to be a realistic figure, going by the conditions and restrictions as well as instances of forgery of documents during the exercise,” a lawyer said.
