GUWAHATI, July 30 - Names of 40,07,707 individuals have been left out in the second and complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which was published today.
The final draft featured names of 2,89,83,677 Indian citizens living in Assam out of the 3,29,91,384 who had applied for inclusion of their names in the registry.
Those left out would have the opportunity to file their claims before the NRC Seva Kendras from August 30 till September 28, said Registrar General of India (RGI) Sailesh while addressing the media persons this morning.
The reasons behind the non-inclusion of names could be ascertained by the aggrieved persons by visiting the NRC Seva Kendra and the local registrar.
�This is a historic moment for us. The exercise of the NRC, in its scale, size and complexity, is unprecedented. It has no parallel in the country and perhaps in the world,� the RGI said.
�Ample opportunity will be given to those whose names did not find a place in the final draft,� said Sailesh, who was accompanied by State Coordinator for NRC Prateek Hajela.
Hajela, replying to a question, said that the final NRC would be published as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court of India after the process of claims, objections and corrections was over.
Both Sailesh and Hajela, however, refrained from providing the district-wise break-up of those whose names did not find a place in the final draft of the NRC.
Further, the decision of eligibility of 2.48 lakh �D� voters, their descendants, and persons whose references are pending at Foreigners Tribunals and their descendants have been kept on hold.
Joint Secretary (North-east) in the Ministry of Home Affairs Satyendra Garg, who was also present on the occasion, said that no reference would be made to the Foreigners Tribunals based on the draft or nobody would be put in the detention camp on the basis of the draft NRC.
The process of NRC update was taken up in Assam as per order of the Supreme Court of India in 2013. The idea behind the exercise to update the citizens document for the first time since 1951 under the supervision of the top court is to identify �genuine citizens� living in Assam and detect illegal immigrants.
Individuals who cannot prove that they or their ancestors entered the country before midnight of March 24, 1971 (cut-off year decided as per the Assam Accord of 1985) will be deemed as illegal immigrants.
The first draft list of the updated NRC was published on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1, featuring names of 1.9 crore Indian citizens living in Assam.
The process of the NRC update started in December 2013 and the applications for it were invited in May-June 2015. The last date of submission of applications was August 31, 2015. As many as 68,31,330 applications were submitted during the update process.
The NRC of 1951 is being updated for Assam in accordance with the tripartite agreement between the State, the Centre and the influential All Assam Students Union (AASU) in 2005 as a key issue for implementation of the Assam Accord.
Apprehending law-and-order situation in the aftermath of the final NRC draft publication, the Centre has deployed more than 200 companies of additional forces in the State.
Director General of Assam Police Kuladhar Saikia, when contacted, said that no untoward incident had been reported from anywhere in the State. �The scenario by and large was peaceful,� he said.
