Rejection slip for 19 lakh excluded from final NRC list likely from 20 March, says Assam govt

Guwahati: The NRC Authority plans to start issuing the ‘Rejection Slip’ to over 19 lakh people excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) from 20 March, the Assam government said on Monday. The Rejection Slip will mention the reasons for excluding a person’s name from the final NRC. [caption id=“attachment_5636661” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of an NRC centre in Assam. Reuters[/caption] At present, work related to scanning of “speaking order” is going on and around 12 percent job is left, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said while replying to a written query by Congress MLA Rekibuddin Ahmed. “After this work gets completed, there is a plan to issue the Rejection Slip from 20/03/2020,” said Patowary on behalf of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal who also holds the Implementation of Assam Accord portfolio. In a separate query by Congress MLA Abul Kalam Rasheed Alam, the minister said a total of Rs 1,348.13 crore have been allotted for the NRC updation work. The final NRC was published on August 31 last year by excluding 19,06,657 persons. A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants. Before publishing the final NRC, the Centre had extended the time limit for filing of appeals in Foreigners Tribunals by the excluded people with Rejection Slips to 120 days from 60 days and necessary amendments were made. However, the process got inordinately delayed and no tentative schedule for issuing Rejection Slips was announced