Assam recognises 19 mn as citizens
GUWAHATI: Assam listed 19 million citizens in the first updated draft of the National Register of Citizens, which was released at the stroke of midnight on Sunday, but another 13.9 million people will have to wait.
The Registrar General of India, Sailesh, tried to allay fears of applicants not included in the draft, saying there’s no need to panic. “The verification process for 13.9 million applicants is still on. Everybody should be patient and wait for the final draft,” he said on Monday.
There were 32.9 million applicants for the list, updated through a massive exercise monitored by the Supreme Court. No timeline has been fixed for the complete draft and the process could take months, according to officials.
The NRC is being revised only in Assam with the aim to identify illegal immigrants who may have entered the state from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971. “This (NRC) is unprecedented. There is no example in this country. I doubt if there is any other country in the world having such a complex methodology to determine the citizenship of the people,” Sailesh said.
Security was tightened across the state as people in large numbers flocked more than 4,200 NRC centres on Monday to check the list. Many people, especially Muslims, feared their names could be knocked out of the list.
“I was relieved to see names of all my seven family members. We have full faith in the system and are sure that names of those missing will be included in the next draft,” said Nurul Ali, a farmer from Kaki in Nagaon district of central Assam.
The administration anticipated violence as many names were missing, but nothing untoward was reported. “But we will be watchful for a few days,” Assam Police DGP Mukesh Sahay said.