NGO to move SC over legacy data ‘anomalies’

From Our Special Correspondent GUWAHATI: Even as less than a month remains for the publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Sachetan Nagarik Mancha, Axom, a city-based citizen’s group has decided to submit an affidavit before the Supreme Court alleging anomalies in the NRC update process. The Mancha claimed to have evidence that about 10,000 people have been included in the complete draft NRC (published last year) without submission of any legacy data while about 68,000 persons have who have submitted just one legacy data (family) find their names in the draft. “In this regard, we are going to file an affidavit before the Supreme Court on Monday. We have evidence to prove that several families have submitted just one legacy data. To cite instances, many have used the legacy data of their father-in-law while tenants have used the legacy data of their landlords,” the Mancha’s secretary, Atul Barman told The Shillong Times on Saturday. The Mancha had demanded 10 per cent sample re-verification of the persons included in the draft NRC which, however, was not considered by the apex court following submission of reports by the state NRC coordinator. “The state NRC coordinator had, in his reports, stated that 27 per cent re-verification was done during the disposal of claims in the NRC process and hence there was no need to carry out a similar exercise again. However, we would like to question him about the procedure of the re-verification and whether there were any witnesses,” Barman said. The apex court has allowed the NRC authorities in Assam a month’s extension to publish the final register by August 31, 2019. The Mancha had on June 29 submitted an appeal to the President signed by more than 25 lakh indigenous citizens of Assam demanding exclusion of all illegal migrants from the draft so that an error-free NRC is published. “We hope that the Supreme Court would ensure publication of an error-free NRC where only legal citizens find a place. There are many indigenous people belonging to districts such as Dima Hasao, Udalguri and Korajhar, etc who are yet to find a place in the register,” he said.