Nearly 32 years after the Assam Accord was signed, the first draft of an updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) for the State listed 1.90 crore names out of the 3.29 crore applicants. The updated NRC was published at midnight on December 31.
Assam is the only State in the country that prepared an NRC in 1951 following the census of that year and has become the first State to get the first draft of its own updated NRC. The NRC, 1951, is updated in Assam with the names of applicants whose names appear in NRC, 1951, or any electoral rolls of the State up to midnight of March 24, 1971, and their descendants and all Indian citizens, including their children and descendants who have moved to Assam post March 24, 1971.
Announcing the publication of the first draft of the updated NRC at a press conference, Registrar-General of India Sailesh told journalists that verification of the remaining applicants was under way and the subsequent draft would be published after the names were verified.
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State NRC Coordinator Pratik Hajela allayed the fears of those whose names did not appear in the first draft, saying the verification was a tedious process and there was a possibility that some names within a single family might not be included in the first draft. He appealed to all people not to panic as the verification process was still on.
The time frame for the publication of the NRC draft was set by the Supreme Court, which has been monitoring the entire process. The court had turned down a plea by the Centre last month for an extension of the time frame till July 31, 2018, and directed that the first draft be published at midnight of December 31.
Mr. Sailesh said the time frame for publication of the second draft would be decided in accordance with the Supreme Court, adding that the entire process would be completed in 2018.
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NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela said those people whose names have been excluded in the first list need not worry.
“It is a tedious process to verify the names. So there is a possibility that some names within a single family may not be there in the first draft,” said Mr. Hajela.
“There is no need to panic as rest of the documents are under verification,” he said.
Asked about the possible timeframe for the next draft, the RGI said it will be decided as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court — under whose monitoring the document is being prepared — in its next hearing in April.
The entire process will be completed within 2018, Mr. Sailesh said.
The application process started in May, 2015 and a total of 6.5 crore documents were received from 68.27 lakh families across Assam.
“The process of accepting complaints will start once the final draft is published as rest of the names are likely to appear in that,” Mr. Hajela said.
People can check their names in the first draft at NRC sewa kendras across Assam from 8 am on January 1. They can also check for information online and through SMS services.
The RGI informed that the ground work for this mammoth exercise began in December 2013 and 40 hearings have taken place in the Supreme Court over the last three years.
Assam, which faced influx from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only State having an NRC, first prepared in 1951.
The Supreme Court, which is monitoring the entire process, had ordered that the first draft of the NRC be published by December 31 after completing the scrutiny of over two crore claims along with that of around 38 lakh people whose documents were suspect.