Assam NRC: Sushil Kumar Modi says 73,000 Biharis in northeastern state submitted documents for inclusion

Patna: Around 73,000 people from Bihar, currently living in Assam, sent their documents for verification to get included in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) being prepared in the northeastern state, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said in Patna on Monday. The NRC is being prepared under the supervision of the Supreme Court with a view to enlist Indian citizens living in Assam. [caption id=“attachment_4257327” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sushil Kumar Modi. PTI[/caption] “About 73,000 people from Bihar have sent documents, such as certificates of birth and caste, Aadhar cards, voter identity cards, certificates of educational qualifications, land records and driving licenses, etc to the Bihar government for verification through the government of Assam,” Modi said in a release. “So far, 52,110 documents have been sent to the concerned districts, departments, or concerned bodies for verification. Of these, 5418 have been duly verified and 3,264 have been sent back to Assam,” he added. Modi said the Bihar School Examination Board has verified 4,218 such documents, the maximum so far for any institution in the state. He also said that the maximum number of documents have been received from natives of Saran district (8,716), followed by Muzaffarpur (8,022), Siwan (3,874), Vaishali (3,936), East Champaran (2,951) and Darbhanga (1,763). “All district magistrates have been instructed to do the needful at the earliest so that Biharis living in Assam do not face any hardships,” Modi said. The NRC includes the names of all citizens who have been residing in Assam before 25 March, 1971. The exclusion of 40 lakh names in the complete draft of the NRC released by the Assam government in July had drawn sharp criticism from leaders such as Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee. The West Bengal chief minister had alleged that “Indian citizens have become refugees” in their home state on account of the vote-bank politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in power at the Centre and Assam.