People included in the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) published in July 2018 but suspected to be foreigners continue to receive notices for re-verification of their documents, days before the publication of the final citizens’ list.
On Thursday, Nazir Ahmed of No. 4 Kumalia, Jan Mohammed of North Bagma and Suruj Ali and Achar Ali of Japorguri — all three villages in north-eastern Assam’s Biswanath district — appeared for a hearing at their assigned NRC service centres. They had received the re-verification notice on Wednesday, about 72 hours before the publication of the final NRC.
According to the notice, a member each in their families was found to be ineligible because of discrepancies discovered while scrutinising their names in the draft NRC of July 2018. The discrepancy was outlined as “family tree reject.”
Each NRC applicant has to establish his or her family tree so that they are not linked with the wrong legacy person — meaning someone figuring in the legacy data comprising a set of documents, including the first NRC of 1951 and voters’ lists up to March 24, 1971.
“This is not only the case of four persons in Biswanath district. Many others in the district and elsewhere such as Kamrup, Morigaon and Barpeta have been receiving re-verification notices. We don’t know what the motive is behind this when the NRC deadline is round the bend,” Azizur Rahman, advisor to All-Assam Minority Students’ Union, told The Hindu .
The NRC authority said there was nothing unusual about such notices. “Some people may be summoned on Friday too. The process will continue until the deadline fixed by the Supreme Court,” a spokesperson said.
