Guwahati
When the people all over the world were welcoming the new year 2018, on the same time people in Assam were searching their names in National Register of Citizens (NRC). The first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam was published on Monday midnight.
The names of 1.9 crore people from the total 3.29 crore applicants as legal citizens of India, said Registrar General of India Sailesh, during a press conference held in New Delhi.
“It is a part draft. Out of 3.29 crores, it contains 1.94 crore persons who have been verified & included in the NRC (National Register of Citizen) till date. The rest of the names are under various stages of verification,” Sailesh said.
All the people who don’t find their names shouldn’t have any apprehensions. As soon as their verification is over, we will come up with another draft. Process of claims and objection will happen once another draft containing all names is published,” he added.
The NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela seconded that people whose names have been excluded in the first list should not worry.
“It is a tedious process to verify the names. So there is a possibility that some names within a single family may not be there in the first draft,” said Hajela.
“There is no need to panic as rest of the documents are under verification,” he said.
Confirming that the entire process would be completed within 2018, Sailesh said that the next draft would likely be released in April, as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court.
The National Register of Citizens was launched with a goal of documenting the verifiable citizens of India, to crackdown on and prevent illegal immigration, especially from nearby Bangladesh. The application process was launched in May 2015 and 6.5 crore documents were received from 68.27 lakh families in the state of Assam.
Currently, Assam is the only state having an NRC as it faced an influx from Bangladesh since the early 20th century.
