NRC publication: Assam CM assures security to 'all Indian citizens'
The Assam government would provide security to all Indian citizens and no one should worry about the “after affects” of publication of the NRC next week, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said today.
The second and final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is scheduled to be published on July 30 when the fate of all 3.29 crore applicants will be decided.
The chief minister said the state government was duty bound to provide safety and security to all sections of the people.
“The state government will provide safety and security to all Indians living in Assam,” Sonowal said in an official release.
“No one should be worried about the after affect of the NRC publication as adequate measures have already been taken to bring all Indian citizens within the ambit of security of
the state,” he said.
The part draft of the NRC was published on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1, wherein the names of 1.9 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated.
The massive exercise, aimed at identifying the illegal immigrants in the north-eastern state bordering Bangladesh, is being carried out following a decision in 2005 after a series of meetings involving the central and state governments and the influential All Assam Students’ Union (AASU). The office of the State Coordinator of NRC today said all bona fide Indians will be given adequate opportunities to prove their citizenship.
It said, “applicants will be given ample opportunity to prove their eligibility for inclusion in the final NRC”. “Applicants who do not find their names in the Complete Draft NRC need not worry. All genuine Indian Citizens as per cut-off date March 24, 1971 (midnight) will be included in the final NRC”, said press advertisements given by the office of the State Coordinator of NRC.
State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hazela has said that after publication of the complete draft, those who had submitted the NRC application form until August 31, 2015 can submit their claim in the prescribed form from August 30 to September 28 next at the NRC Seva Kendra (NSK) where the claimant had earlier submitted the application form.
Similarly, there is also a provision for any person to submit objections against any ineligible name included in the complete draft NRC, he said, adding the objection can be submitted at the NSK covering the residence of the person against whom the objection has been submitted.
The claims and objections correction forms will be made available at all NSKs. It could also be downloaded from www.nrcassam.nic,in from August 7 onwards.
Around 22 lakh hard copies of the final draft of the NRC will be available in all the 2,500 NSKs across Assam on July 30. Pre-registered and on demand SMS services would also be available for people to check their names in the draft, according to Hajela.
The state NRC coordinator had earlier said that the names of around 1.50 lakh people appearing in the first draft on December 31 last year would not be included in the final draft on July 30.
On the ‘D’ (doubtful) voters whose cases are going on in the Foreigners Tribunals, the NRC state coordinator said, “we have not deleted their names but only kept them on hold.
“If they win the case in the Foreigners Tribunals, their names will be included in the NRC later”.
Around 40,000 state government officials and outsourced data entry operators have been engaged in this exercise that started in 2015.
