GUWAHATI, Sept 8 - All-out efforts are being made to ensure that no one can get his or her name included in the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) with false or forged documents, asserted the State Coordinator for updating the NRC, Prateek Hajela.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, Hajela admitted that the process of verification of the documents submitted by the applicants is the most vital process of updating the NRC and efforts are being made to make the system foolproof so that no illegal migrant can include his or her name in the NRC with forged documents. He also admitted that after the completion of the process of updating the NRC, it would be easier to identify the foreigners, if any, living in the State.
Hajela revealed that the process of verification of documents has already started and the process is scheduled to be completed by November. He pointed out that the process of verification of the documents, which can be verified locally, has started. But the difficult process would be to verify the documents of other districts and states and it would have to be sent to the concerned areas. He said that at least six crore documents would have to be verified, of which, around three to four crore documents would have to be sent to other districts and states. As it will not be possible to physically send the documents, those would be sent electronically and the process of digitalization of the documents has started. Immediately after the completion of the computerization of the documents, it would be sent to respective districts and states.
The NRC State Coordinator pointed out that it would be easier to check the documents of the persons having legacy data, but �we have to take extra care to ensure that no one can get away by submitting forged or fake linkage documents.� In the next step, the process of house-to-house verification would start and Hajela said that security of the personnel engaged in the job should not be a major concern as NRC centres operated smoothly in the interior places.
The verification of documents would be a huge exercise and the training of the government officials is on. Hajela said that as document verification is a statutory process, only government officials can be engaged in the job. However, at least 8,000 people are hired for data entry job.
Hajela said that funds would not be a problem for completing the process. He revealed that the total budget for completing the process is around Rs 498 crore and the Government of India has already released Rs 180 crore. He pointed out that the government officers engaged in the job get their salaries and they have only to be paid a remuneration, while, the data entry operators have to be paid for the job. That is why, major portion of the money for the job would be spent on payment of remuneration of the persons engaged temporarily.
