GUWAHATI, Oct 2 - The process of filing claims and objections on the draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) so far has been very slow as not many people have filed applications so far. Meanwhile, the process of fine tuning of the NRC is still on and there is possibility of striking down of some names from the draft at the time of publication of the final NRC.
Highly placed official sources told The Assam Tribune that though names of more than 40 lakh applicants were not included in the draft of the NRC, not many of them have so far filed claims for inclusion of their names, while, only a handful of objections have been filed all over the State.
The process of filing of claims and objections started on September 25 and till date, only around 19,000 applications have been filed for inclusion of names. Sources observed that the process may pick up momentum after the Supreme Court makes its stand clear on the admissibility of documents for filing of claims. The Supreme Court has so far allowed submission of 10 documents during the claims process and decision of five other documents has been put on the hold. The Apex Court is likely to make its stand clear during the next hearing scheduled for October 23.
Sources admitted that so far, only a handful of objections have been filed. Anyone interested in filing objection against inclusion of any name in the draft NRC would have to know the Application Receipt Number (ARN) of the person to do so and as per the directive of the Supreme Court all the details are made available in the offices of Deputy Commissioners and Circle Officers.
It has also been made clear that no applicant can change his or her legacy �person� while filing claims, while, at the same time, no one will be allowed to change his or her family tree during the process.
Meanwhile, the officials involved in updating the NRC are continuously making efforts to find out whether anyone whose name was included in the draft was declared as a foreigner by a Foreigners� Tribunal or he or she is a D voter. �Constant checking is on to ensure that name of any person who was declared as a foreigner or his or her name figures in the list of D Voters or a case is pending against him or her in the Foreigners� Tribunals is not included in the final NRC. So far a few thousand such names have been detected and those will be deleted from the NRC,� sources added.
