Officers Said To Be Working 24x7 For An ‘Error-Free’ Final Assam NRC List

Officers are working round-the-clock to ensure an "error-free" National Register of Citizens in Assam that will be published on Aug. 31, sources said on Wednesday.

Data for the final Assam NRC list has been compiled and NRC officers at the district, circle and block levels are working 24x7 to ensure no bona fide citizen is left out, the sources said.

"Quality control checks are underway to ensure that the NRC is error-free and this would continue till the last day," said sources in the NRC state coordinator's office.

Officers engaged in updating the final list are in constant touch with the government departments concerned, including border police and the Foreigners Tribunals, so that any person against whom cases are pending in the tribunals are not included in the final Assam NRC.

The Assam NRC office has issued a notice on how to check the names in the final list.

"Those who submitted claims as they were not included in the complete draft published on July 30, 2018, or excluded by the Additional Draft Exclusion List published on June 26, 2019, and those who had any objection filed against their inclusion, can see their status in the supplementary list of inclusion by visiting designated NSK/office of circle officers/office of deputy commissioners," the notice said.

People can also check their status online by typing their Application Receipt Numbers on the NRC website from August 31 under the title 'Supplementary List of Inclusions /Exclusions Status'. Those who were included in the complete draft and not excluded in the Additional Draft Exclusion List, but were called for hearings from July 5, 2019, onwards, can also check their status in the same manner, it said.

In addition, people who were not called for the hearings have "no cause to worry about their inclusion status, as they continue to be included in the final NRC", the notice said.

The police, meanwhile, is "fully prepared" to tackle any law and order situation in the run-up to the publication of Assam NRC's final list and theereafter, said Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia. The Assam government said it will provide free legal aid to "needy" people whose names do not figure in the list, as it sought to assuage the fears of bona fide Indians who apprehend losing citizenship.

The process of updating the NRC is being conducted by the Registrar General of India. The Supreme Court is monitoring the exercise.

2019 marks the first time since 1951 that the NRC is being updated in Assam to identify bona fide residents and deport illegal immigrants. When the draft NRC was published on July 30, 2018, there was a huge controversy over the exclusion of 40.7 lakh people from it. In the list published in June 2019, over a lakh more people were excluded.

Assam has seen a huge influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century.