GUWAHATI: The process to file claims and objections in National Register of Citizens (NRC) will begin on Tuesday. It will continue for two months.
Under the claims process, over 40 lakh people who were not included in either the part draft or the complete draft of NRC, will have to submit prescribed documents to get their names included. Under the process of filing of objections, people can move NRC authorities seeking the deletion of names of individuals if they are certain the individuals are not Indians but illegal immigrants.
The authorities had enrolled the names of the applicants in draft NRC based on 15 documents. Recently, NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela submitted to the Supreme Court, under whose direct monitoring the document is being updated, saying that ten documents of List-A could be relied upon or introduced afresh by any claimant for inclusion of his or her name in NRC but subject to authenticity as per the certification by relevant issuing authority.
The five documents that Hajela sought to ignore were the NRC of 1951, pre-1971 voters’ lists, citizenship certificate, refugee registration certificate and ration cards. The SC will give its order on the five documents on October 23. Till then, these documents cannot be the basis to claim citizenship and the applicants will have to submit any of the remaining ten documents of List-A.
Meanwhile, BJP MLA Shiladitya Dev, who is known for his controversial remarks, urged the SC not to discriminate against the Bengali Hindu immigrants.
“My lord do not discriminate….your own children. Hindu – born in India,” read the placard which he came holding at the Assam Assembly during the autumn session on Monday. His obvious reference was to the two-member SC Bench led by Chief Justice in-waiting Ranjan Gogoi, who happens to be from Assam.
The quirky MLA has been very critical of the NRC process for the past few months. He alleged that the names of lakhs of illegal Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants had made it to NRC draft.
The complete draft of NRC had the names of 2,89, 83,677 of total 3,29,91,384 applicants.