GUWAHATI, July 23 - After more than three years of hard work by 50,000 persons, the stage is finally set for the publication of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 30. Adequate opportunities will be given to those whose names are not included in the draft to file claims and objections.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, the State Coordinator for NRC, Prateek Hajela said that as the countdown for the publication of the complete draft has started, all efforts are made to ensure that the people get adequate opportunities to check their names in the draft. He said that the final draft of the NRC would be available online, while, pre-registered and on demand SMS services would also be available for the people. He said that hard copies of the draft NRC would also be available in all the 2500 NRC Seva Kendras spread all over the State during the morning hours of July 30.
Hajela pointed out that the publication of the draft of the NRC would be a much larger affair than declaration of any examination result as there were 3.29 crore applicants. But at the same time, he said that they had learnt from the experience of publication of the part draft on December 31 and hoped that the publication would go on smoothly. Replying to a question whether adequate security arrangements have been made in the Seva Kendras, he said that the issue is being looked after by the State Government and there should not be any problem.
On the progress of the work so far, Hajela said that the verification process has been completed and the data entry work is also done. Now the final touches are being given to the complete draft and taking print outs would also take some time. But at the same time, he asserted that all the works are on schedule and the complete draft would be out on time.
The first draft of the NRC contained only the names , but the complete draft would contain names, photos and places of birth of the applicants. �We will be publishing the names of only those who are found to be eligible for inclusion in the NRC. There will be no negative list and the names of those whose applications were rejected, will not be made public,� he added.
Giving details of the entire process, the NRC Coordinator said that the actual process started in February, 2015 when around a hundred Seva Kendras were set up in selected districts and by March that year, all the 2500 Seve Kendras started operating. That was followed by publication of legacy data and the process of receiving applications started in August. Around 3.29 crore people applied for inclusion of their names in the NRC and more than six crore documents were submitted by the applicants. Around 5.5 lakh documents were sent to other states for verification but around 3.7 lakh of it were not returned by the concerned states and the verification for the concerned persons had to be carried out here only.
After the publication of the first draft, the process of verification of around 48 lakh family tree mismatches and 29 lakh certificates issued by the Panchayat secretaries were verified and it was found that names of around 1.50 lakh applicants, whose names appeared in the first draft, were not eligible to be included in the final draft.
Hajela pointed out that even if name of any genuine Indian citizen is not included in the complete draft, it is not the end of the road for him or her. He said that from August 7, those whose names would not appear in the complete draft would get an opportunity to meet the heads of the Seva Kendras to know the reasons for non inclusion of their names in the final draft, which would be followed by one month�s time for submission of claims and objections. He said that final NRC would be published only after the disposal of the claims and objections. However, the date for publication of the final NRC is yet to be decided. But even if any genuine Indian citizen�s name is not included in the final NRC, he or she would have the opportunity to appear before the Foreigners� Tribunals.
