GUWAHATI: In a historic day for Assam and the country, the updated final National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published in the state on Saturday but it found little acceptance as political parties and organisations cried foul.
An uncertain future stared at over 19 lakh applicants whose citizenship claims were rejected. Altogether 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC.
Of them, 3,11,21,004 have been included in the document and 19,06,657 excluded, a statement to the media by the state coordinator, NRC Assam, Prateek Hajela said.
It may be recalled that 2,89,83,677 numbers of persons were found eligible for inclusion in the draft NRC (complete draft) published on July 30, 2018 in accordance with the directives of the Supreme Court which monitored the entire update process since 2013.
Thus, an additional 21, 37,327 persons out of the 41, 10169 persons excluded from the draft have been included in the final list following disposal of all claims and objections and proceedings.
It may be noted that 40, 07707 persons were excluded from the draft published last year.
The process of NRC update was started in the state of Assam as per order of the Supreme Court of India in 2013.
Since then, the apex court has been closely monitoring the entire process.
“The process of receipt of NRC application forms started during the end of May 2015 and ended on August 31, 2015,” it said.
The NRC updation has been a mammoth exercise involving around 52,000 state government officials working for a prolonged period. All decisions of inclusion and exclusion are taken by these statutory officers.
”The entire process has been meticulously carried
out in an objective and transparent manner. Adequate opportunity of being heard has been given to all persons at every stage of the process. The entire process is conducted as per statutory provisions and due procedure followed at every stage,” the statement said.
”Any person who is not satisfied with the outcome of the claims and objections can file appeal before the Foreigners Tribunals,” it added.
The All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Assam Public Works (APW), the primary petitioner in the Supreme Court, which led to the updation of the NRC have outrightly expressed their displeasure over the outcome.
“This is a flawed document as five of our submissions for re-verification of the draft NRC were rejected by the apex court. There has been no audit by any information technology expert and we doubt whether the software used for the exercise was capable of handling so much data,” APW president, Aabhijeet Sharma told the media after publication of the citizens register.
AASU, meanwhile, has pledged to move the Supreme Court over the exclusions from the final NRC list, which it said was nowhere close to the figures of the illegal immigrants put up by the government from time to time.
In a statement, the students’ organisation, which was part of the tripartite meeting with the Centre and state government held 14 years back to develop a consensus on the NRC update, felt that “some loopholes remain in the final list, which is why it has not emerged as a complete register of citizens.”
“In order to rectify the loopholes, we will make our submissions before the Supreme Court and we have faith that the apex court will take the requisite measures in this regard. Here, we would also like to point out that the central and state governments have failed to take the opportunity of a Supreme Court-monitored exercise for a ‘foreigner-free’ NRC,” the students union said.
The ruling BJP in Assam said they do not trust the updated NRC and appealed to the party governments, both at the Centre and the state, to go for a nationwide NRC. “We do not trust this NRC.
We are very unhappy. We appeal the central and state governments to prepare a national level NRC,” BJP Assam president Ranjeet Kumar Dass said.
“If we see that Foreigners Tribunals are delivering adverse judgments on the appeals by genuine Indian citizens, we will not wait for the entire 19 lakh cases to be disposed of. We will bring in a legislation and make an act to protect them,” he asserted.
Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a member of the ruling alliance in Assam, expressed dissatisfaction over the final NRC and said there is scope for its review in the Supreme Court, which supervised the updation process. The number of exclusions appear to be “ridiculously small”, AGP president and state Agriculture Minister Atul Bora said.
In a shift of stand over the NRC update in Assam, the AIUDF thanked Supreme Court for taking the initiative to ascertain genuine citizens.
