Assam govt tags 1.9 crore Assamese as 'legal' in first NRC draft: 1.39 crore await their turn

The Assam government has published the part draft of the much-awaited National Register of Citizens (NRC) which includes names of 1.9 crore people of total 3.29 crore applicants in the state, an official said.

The Assam government has tagged about 1.9 crore of the 3.29 crore Assam residents as ‘legal’, while the rest await further verification. The much-awaited first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published on the last day of 2017.

Registrar General of India (RGI), Sailesh said this while addressing a press conference at 11.45 pm on Sunday and said the names of the rest of the people are at various stages of verification.

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The status of inclusion of names can be checked in the websites - www.nrcassam.nic.in, www.assam.gov.in, www.assam.mygov.in, the Office of the State Coordinator of National Registration (NRC) posted on its official Twitter page. The RGI said the complete NRC will be published within the year 2018.

The rest of the names are under various stages of verification, Registrar General of India Sailesh said at a press conference held at midnight where he made the draft public.

“This is a part draft. It contains 1.9 crore persons, who have been verified till now. The rest of the names are at various stages of verification. As soon as the verification is done, we will come out with another draft,” Sailesh said.

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He said this is only the part draft of the NRC and that there is no need to worry if anyone’s name has not been included in the part draft that has been published. “It only means that his or her name is at some stage of verification,” he said.

CNN-News18 quoted NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela as saying that those whose names have been excluded in the first list need not worry as the body will come out with more names to add to the list.

“It is a tedious process to verify the names. So there is a possibility that some names within a single family may not be there in the first draft,” said Hajela.

“There is no need to panic as rest of the documents are under verification,” he said.

The application process started in May, 2015 and a total of 6.5 crore documents were received from 68.27 lakh families across Assam, reports said.

“The process of accepting complaints will start once the final draft is published as rest of the names are likely to appear in that,” Hajela said.

The NRC authorities had received applications submitted by 3.29 crore people, accompanied by six crore documents, of the state for inclusion of heir names in the NRC.

The process of updating the NRC began in 2013 and it was carried out under the guidance and instruction of the Supreme court.

Those who want can check their names in the first draft at NRC sewa kendras across Assam from 8 am on 1 January. They can also check for information online and through SMS services.

The RGI informed that the ground work for this mammoth exercise began in December 2013 and 40 hearings have taken place in the Supreme Court over the last three years. Assam, which faced influx from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC, first prepared in 1951.

The Supreme Court, which is monitoring the entire process, had ordered that the first draft of the NRC be published by 31 December after completing the scrutiny of over two crore claims along with that of around 38 lakh people whose documents were suspect.

With inputs from agencies