GUWAHATI: The Assam government late on Sunday night published the much-awaited draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), recognising the names of 1.9 crore people out of a total of 3.29 crore applicants as legal citizens of India. The rest of the names of applicants continued to remain "under various stages of verification" and are likely to be recognised in the final draft.
“People, whose names have not figured in the list, should not worry, for this is a part NRC. The names of the remaining applicants are under various stages of verification. Claims and objections can be filed only after phase 2 which is the complete draft. Hopefully, we will be able to complete the entire process by 2018,” registrar general of India (RGI) Sailesh, who was present during the online publication of the part NRC, told the media.
The NRC authorities had received applications from 68.27 lakh families comprising 3.29 crore individuals.
About 1.39 crore cases continued to remain under examination, scrutiny or field verification, Sailesh said.
In December, the Centre had sought seven more months to publish the part draft but the Supreme Court, under whose direct monitoring the NRC is being updated, rejected the plea.
NRC State coordinator, Prateek Hajela, said the documents of the applicants were being examined closely. “Following verification of documents, we will publish the final draft. We have received instructions from the RGI to get complaints of applicants examined by senior officials in the districts,” he said.
Among those recognised in the NRC was the name of United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) chief Paresh Baruah, currently operating out of Myanmar, and the outfit’s publicity secretary Arunadoy Asom alias Bijit Gogoi.
The part NRC did not have the names of several lawmakers cutting across political lines and communities.
Prominent among those whose names did not figure in the list were opposition All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief and Dhubri MP, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, his two sons, former Congress minister Ardhendu Kumar Dey, MLAs Shiladitya Deb, Ashwini Roy Sarkar, Nizanur Rahman, Nurul Huda and Nazrul Haque and former MLA Abu Taher Bepari.
The NRC is being updated in accordance with the Assam Accord of 1985 which the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) had signed with the former Rajiv Gandhi government. Advisor to AASU, Samujjal Bhattacharya, has for long been vocal on updating the NRC. However, the name of a member of his family did not figure in the list. Similarly, the list does not have the names of All Assam Minority Students’ Union president Azizur Rahman and its general secretary Ainuddin Ahmed.
There are scores of cases where the names of youngsters are included in the list but not that of their parents, evidently due to errors in verification of documents. The name of Bodoland Territorial Council member, Abdul Ali Mondol, has not been included in the part NRC but it has the name of his four-year-old granddaughter.
Former Congress minister Ardhendu Kumar Dey said Baruah might not consider himself to be an Indian but the inclusion of his name in the NRC was indeed good news. On the exclusion of his own name, Dey said he was not worried.