GUWAHATI: The final updated National Register of Citizenship (NRC) has been published in Assam on Saturday.
Total 3,11,21,004 persons have made to the final NRC document while 19,06,657 applicants’ names have been left out. There were total 3, 30, 27,661 applicants.
The NRC updating process was started in 2013 where over 60,00O staff have been working under the leadership of NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela. The process of updating the NRC has been monitored by the Supreme Court of India.
When the final draft NRC was published on July 30, 2018, names of 40,43,984 were left out while 2,89,83,677 applicants made it to the final draft.
Out of those left out of the final draft, 36,26,630 had applied for inclusion of their names in the final updated NRC while 4, 27,354 persons did not apply for inclusion of their names. Objections were raised against 1,87,633 applicants.
The NRC in Assam is being updated as per the tripartite agreement signed among the Centre, Assam Government and All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on May 5, 2005 in order to facilitate easy detection of illegal migrants who had sneaked into Assam after the midnight of March 24, 1971, as per the Assam Accord signed in August, 1985.
The NRC has been updated to include the names of those persons (or their descendants) who appear in the NRC, 1951, or in any of the electoral rolls up to the midnight of March 24, 1971 or in any one of the other admissible documents issued up to mid-night of March 24, 1971, which would prove their presence in Assam or in any part of India on or before 24 March 1971.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Assam government have made it clear that those whose names have been left out of the final NRC that was published on Saturday, will not be considered foreigners. They will neither be arrested nor sent to detention camp.
These people will be able to move any of the Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs) in Assam with 120 days from today, the day of publication of the final NRC, seeking redressal. The government has already taken up steps to set up 200 FTs in the state which will become operational from October 1 next. Already 100 FTs have been functioning in Assam.
From 1985, when FTs were first set up in Assam, till February 28 this year, as many as 63,959 persons were declared foreigners through ex-parte proceedings.