GUWAHATI, June 26 - Names of 1.02 lakh persons, which appeared in the draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), were deleted in the additional draft exclusions list, which was published today. However, those persons would get a chance to file claims before the NRC authorities and the final NRC will be published as per schedule on July 31.
Official sources told The Assam Tribune that as per provisions of Clause 5 of the Schedule of The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, an Additional Draft Exclusion List consisting of 1,02,462 persons has been published today. The persons whose names appear in the Additional Draft Exclusions List are those persons whose names were included in the Draft NRC published on July 30 last year, but have been subsequently found ineligible to be included in the NRC.
Sources said that the persons whose names were included in the additional draft today include, persons who were found to be declared foreigners, doubtful voter or persons with cases pending at Foreigners Tribunals or their descendants, as applicable, discovered after publication of Draft NRC. The list also includes persons who were found to be ineligible while appearing as witness in hearings held for disposal of Claims and Objections and persons who were found to be ineligible during the process of verification carried out by the Local Registrars of Citizens Registration (LRCRs) under provisions of Clause 4(3), after publication of Complete Draft NRC on July 30 last year. The additional list did not contain the results of verification of the claims and objections.
The persons whose names appeared in the additional draft will get a chance to file claims. The hard copies of the Additional Draft Exclusion List were made available for public view at NRC Seva Kendras (NSK), offices of the Deputy Commissioners, SDO (Civil) and Circle Officer during office hours. Particulars of the Additional Draft Exclusion List can also be viewed online in the NRC website www.nrcassam.nic.in.
Persons whose names were included in the additional draft will also be informed individually through Letters of Information (LOI) to be delivered at their residential addresses along with the reason of exclusion. Such persons will have the opportunity to file their claims which will be disposed through a hearing by a Disposing Officer. The submission of claims and their disposal by the Disposing Officer through a hearing will happen together on the same time. Giving reasons for disposing off the cases on the day of filing of the claims, sources said that such a move was thought of to save time as �we do not have the luxury of time.� Such hearings will start from July 5 and the concerned individuals would be informed about the venue and date in the letters to be sent to them.
It may be mentioned here that names of more than 40 lakh applicants were not included in the draft of the NRC and with the publication of the additional draft , the names of such persons increased to more than 41 lakh. Sources said that the hearings of claims and objections are nearing completion and as per the directive of the Supreme Court, multi layer checking is now going on and senior officers including Deputy Commissioners, Additional Deputy Commissioners and Circle officers are involved in the process. The NRC authorities are confident of publishing the final NRC by July 31, which was the deadline set by the Supreme Court.
