The National Register of Citizens (NRC) authority on Saturday published the individual status of all the 3.3 crore people of Assam who had applied for inclusion in the updated citizens’ registry when the exercise began five years ago.
The list – which has the names of those who have been accepted as citizens, those who have been rejected and those whose appeals are pending – was uploaded on the official NRC site less than a fortnight after 19.07 lakh people were excluded from the final NRC released on August 31.
Binit Marapache, son of the late Yam Bhadur who fought in Indo-China war 1962 from Gorkha Regiment, shows his father's medal, at Balaparai village in Baska, Friday, Sept. 13, 2019. Marapache and his brother's name were not included in the final list of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
One, however, has to key in the ARN, or application receipt number, to view his or her citizenship status or that of the members of his or her family. Each applicant was provided a unique ARN generated after application for the NRC updating exercise.
NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela had in a statement explained the difference between the final NRC lists released 14 days apart.
“Whereas the final NRC publication on August 31, 2019, consisted only of supplementary lists, queries were received about publication of results of all members of a family irrespective of their involvement in the Claims and Objections process. The results for the complete family will be available only for display online,” he said a few days ago.
“Queries were also received from the public about the issue of certified copies of rejection from final NRC… The process of collection of the orders passed by the NRC officers is being carried out to enable early availability of the same to the public to file appeals,” he added.
“ No FT for indigenous”
About 30 organisations representing various indigenous organisations, including the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), have demanded that the indigenous people excluded from the final NRC be included without forcing them to approach Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs) to establish their citizenship.
Rights groups and tribal organisations in Assam have claimed that at least 2 lakh indigenous people have been excluded from the NRC allegedly for lack of proper documents. Among the NRC-excluded are Koch-Rajbongshi, Karbi, Reang and Bodo tribes. Many non-tribal Assamese people have also found themselves on the rejection list.
“The Supreme Court-monitored NRC was not error-free. The names of indigenous people have been excluded while many foreigners have been included. The NRC must be free of illegal migrants and the indigenous should not be made to go through FT as they cannot be foreigners by any definition of the term,” AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharyya said.
