Begin typing your search above and press return to search.

Stage all set for publication of final NRC

By R Dutta Choudhury

GUWAHATI, Aug 25 - With less than a week for the publication of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC), quality control checks are still on and there is possibility of a few hearings in some parts of the State. There is still possibility of exclusion of names from the NRC if any person is found ineligible for getting his or her name included in the citizenship document.

Official sources told The Assam Tribune that the process is on schedule and there would be no problem in publishing the final NRC on August 31 as stipulated by the Supreme Court.

Sources revealed that the quality control checks would go on till the last moment as the idea is to come up with an error free NRC as far as possible. Senior officers including the Deputy Commissioners and Circle Officers are carrying out the quality control checks and they are assisted by the field level officers, who have been working on the project for the last few years. There is still possibility of striking down names from the NRC if anyone is found not to be eligible for inclusion during the quality control checks. That is why, there is possibility of a few hearings till the last moment. �If documents of any person are found not in order during the quality control checks, the person should be given an opportunity to present his or her case before the competent authorities before striking down names. That is why some hearings are still taking place and no one should try to create confusion in this regard,� sources added.

The officers engaged with the process of updating the NRC are also in constant touch with the concerned Departments of the Government including Border Police wing and the Foreigners� Tribunals so that name of any person, against whom cases are going on in any Tribunal, is not included in the NRC. As per the law, name of any person, against whom a case is pending before the Tribunals, cannot be included in the NRC.

However, in this regard, the officers are facing a problem because of lack of a proper data base of the persons against whom cases are pending before the Tribunals. The whereabouts of all the persons against whom cases are pending in the Tribunals are not known and there is possibility that some such persons might have shifted to other places of the State and applied for inclusion of their names in the NRC with forged documents.

In fact, a few such cases have already been detected in different parts of the State during the process of updating the NRC, sources added.

In addition to the quality checks, �mopping up operations� are also going on as no genuine Indian citizen should not be left out from the NRC, while, at the same time, no foreigner should be able to get his or her name included in the document with false or forged documents. As the data entry work is also going on, the last couple of days would be used for printing of the NRC and the NRC Coordinator�s Office is planning to come up with an advertisement to educate the people on how they can check their names immediately after the publication of the final NRC.

The present process of updating the NRC started with the setting up of the NRC Coordinator�s Office in 2013 and the actual work in the field started in February, 2015. The more than four year long process under the monitoring of the Supreme Court, will come to an end with the publication of the final NRC on August 31.

Next Story