Stage set for release of Assam's final NRC draft today

GUWAHATI: Nearly 1.5 crore people are on tenterhooks in Assam over their citizenship status as the government prepares to release the final list of Indian citizens living in the state on Monday. The National Registry of Citizens was envisaged given illegal migration into the state from neighbouring Bangladesh. But many complained that they were left out of the list despite submitting sufficient proof.

The NRC will be released online and in all the NRC Sewa Kendras (NSK) across the state at 10 am (instead of noon as announced earlier), NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela said here on Sunday.

The NRC will feature the names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens, who have been residing in the northeastern state before March 25, 1971, he said.

Security has been beefed up across the state to prevent any law and order situation following the publication of the draft, with deputy commissioners and SPS being directed to maintain a strict vigil, a senior police official said here.

A prohibitory order under Section 144 of CRPC has been imposed in seven districts- Barpeta, Darrang, Dima Hasao, Sonitpur, Karimganj, Golaghat and Dhubri.

The situation is being monitored closely to prevent any untoward incident, particularly those arising due to rumour-mongering, the official said.

The Centre has despatched 220 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces to gear up security in Assam and neighbouring states.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had held a high-level meeting recently on the NRC draft release and directed the officers to remain alert and help and explain the process of claims and objections to people whose names do not appear in the draft.

Sonowal had also directed the officials not to refer any case to the Foreigners’ Tribunal based on the NRC draft list.

Hajela pointed out that there would be enough scope for claims by people whose names do not appear in the draft, adding “genuine citizens should not panic if their names fail to figure in the document”.

Early this month, NRC authorities have disclosed that 1.5 lakh people may be axed from the first list since discrepancies were found in their documents.

To help identify declared foreign nationals, the National Register of Citizens is also preparing a shared database of citizens.

The task of creating a digitised database of over three crore people -the backbone for the muchawaited National Register of Citizens (NRC) - was no mean feat, but a Guwahati-based IT company has accomplished the mission in stipulated time with its software solutions.

Assam is the first Indian state where the NRC is being updated after 1951 with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date to include the names of genuine Indian citizens. The first draft of the ongoing NRC process was released on the midnight of December 31, 2017 and it comprised 1.9 crore names out of the total application of 3.29 crore.the final draft is scheduled for release tomorrow.

An exercise of this magnitude for identifying the genuine Indian citizens in Assam, under the supervision of the Supreme Court, was a mammoth task, said Abhijit Bhuyan, the managing director (MD) of IT firm Bohniman Systems.

“The challenges were daunting with myriad problems along the way during the last three-and-a-half years, beginning from September 2014, but we managed to create the database, which formed the basis of NRC,” Bhuyan told PTI.

Over three crore (30 million) people, almost 95 per cent population of Assam, used “legacy data” while applying for the current NRC, he said.

The legacy data are a combination of the 1951 NRC and electoral rolls of Assam from 1951 till March 24, 1971

“Each of these data sets was given a unique code. These unique legacy data code has also become the base for family tree, as it accounted for three crore people and almost 65 lakh families,” she explained.

The NRC Seva Kendras (NSKS) delivered 75 lakh Legacy Data Code (LDC) while 69 lakh LDCS were delivered online, he said.

“The need to create a searchable legacy database was first felt during the pilot NRC process in 2010. The entire process was, however, derailed due to non-availability of legacy data in a comprehendible format,” he said.

After the NRC authorities, who had called for tenders, accorded the work of digitization to Bohniman systems, the IT team set out to work with great zeal, Bhuyan said.

“The professionals, however, faced the initial challenge of collecting legacy data of 1951 NRC (handwritten) and electoral role (printed and handwritten) between 1951 NRC and March 24, 1971, which were in the lockers of the offices of deputy commissioner and district superintendent,” he said.

In 1951, there were only eight districts in Assam, which increased to 27 by 2014. At present there are 33 districts.

People have migrated over the years and it would have been very difficult for them to go search for certified copies of their legacy data in their places of origin, the MD stated.

“Even if people knew their origin, mapping the original eight districts to the current day 27 or 33 districts would not have been possible. The Bohniman systems team had to create multiple filtering options for zone-wise search and all legacy data were mapped with the present districts,” he said.

The second challenge was to translate the legacy data from Assamese and Bengali to English.