Genuine Indians need not fear: Authorities
GUWAHATI: No “genuine Indians” will be left out of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC), authorities in Assam have said as the deadline for the publication of the draft nears.
The draft of the updated register, for which Supreme Court has set December 31 as the date for publication, will be a partial one, which will be further updated later by including names of those who got left out. “The entire exercise is comprehensive and meticulous to produce an accurate NRC where no genuine Indian citizen gets left out and no ineligible person gets included,” said an official involved with the process.
The register, first prepared in 1951, is being updated specifically in Assam under the supervision of the Supreme Court to weed out illegal immigrants who may have entered the state from Bangladesh, a touchy political issue because of the large-scale influx of people from the neighbouring country over the years.
People who can prove links with family members whose names appeared in the 1951 register or subsequent electoral rolls till March 25, 1971, will be included in the updated list.
But with authorities racing to meet the deadline to release the draft, which will include names of most of the 2.38 crore population in the state, there are fears that many names, especially of those belonging to minority community, may get left out. The process is monitored by Supreme Court.
Applicants for whom the entire process of verification will be completed by December 31 would find their names in the first draft. “As such, this will be a part publication of draft NRC. Another draft NRC shall be published subsequently after completion of verification of the rest of the applicants, which shall be the complete publication of draft NRC,” said a public announcement made by NRC office.
The date of complete publication of draft NRC will be notified later. Any claims or objections will be taken up only after the complete draft NRC is made public. The final NRC would be published after all such claims are settled.