The final NRC, released on August 31 last year, excluded 19 lakh people (file)
Guwahati:
Assam NRC authorities have ordered district officials to remove the names of “ineligible” individuals from the “final” list that was released in August last year. The names to be removed are in the thousands, said a senior NRC official.
A letter from Hitesh Dev Sarma, the state’s top NRC official, to the Deputy Commissioners (DC) and Citizen Registrars of Record (DRCR) in each of Assam’s 33 districts also asks them to issue warrants. speaker to stop these thousands of people. sources within the NRC said.
“According to reports received from you … some names of ineligible persons belonging to the categories of DF (declared foreigners) / DV (doubtful voters) / PFT (pending in foreign courts), along with their descendants, have found entry into the NRC, “wrote Sarma.
“The LRCR (local registry of citizens’ registry) can at any time before the final publication of the NRC in the state can cause or order that the names of the people deemed necessary be verified,” Sarma said, citing the relevant rules.
The NRC rules allow authorities to verify and remove incorrect inclusions (and exclusions) at any time prior to the publication of the final NRC. However, the final list, with details of 3.3 million people, was published on August 31, 2019, and an online list was published two weeks later.
In February, however, the NRC authorities began what they called a “part of the post-final NRC publication process … to check whether anyone in the” ineligible “category had been included.
According to Mr. Sarma, developing countries and DRCRs had previously informed him about some ineligible individuals. Mr. Sarma had written to the DC and DRCR to verify and submit a list of “ineligible” names and the reasons for their removal.
A draft of the NRC that was released in July excluded more than 40 lakh people. The final list released the following month reduced that number to 19 lakh.
When the final list was released, the leaders of the Assam BJP attacked and said that many genuine citizens (especially refugees who emigrated from Bangladesh before 1971) had been excluded.
Assam’s Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said it was “flawed” and that the Supreme Court would go to the Supreme Court to request re-verification: 20% in border districts and 10% elsewhere. This was rejected after the court was told that an incidental reverification of 27 percent had taken place.
On August 31 this year, Assam Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary told the Assembly that the Assam government had submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court for further verification.
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