GUWAHATI, Oct 30 - More than one crore legacy data codes available in public domain were not used during the filing of applications for inclusion of names in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and there is possibility of large scale mischief if the legacy data is allowed to be accepted at the time of filing of claims. This was the observation made by the State NRC Coordinator, Prateek Hajela in a report to the Supreme Court.
The report revealed that around two crore legacy data codes were made available through the digitized legacy data mechanism and those remained in public domain for a very long time. The report said that out of the legacy data codes made available in public domain, around 1.50 crore codes were collected by public from the NRC Seva Kendras and some were downloaded. Out of the codes collected by the public, only around 41 lakh were used by the people while filing applications for inclusion of names in the NRC and the unused codes can be used by unscrupulous persons while filing claims if use of the legacy data code is allowed.
The report said that multiple legacy data codes of same persons are available. Giving such an example, the report pointed out that a person�s name can appear in multiple pre-1971 records including the NRC of 1951 and the electoral rolls up to 1971. In the past, a large number of misuse of legacy data codes were detected during the process of verification of the documents filed by the applicants and there is enough scope of mischief if the legacy data codes are allowed during the filing of the claims.
Giving some examples of attempts to misuse legacy data codes, the report revealed that the codes of one Nilakanta Barman were available in NRC of 1951 and electoral rolls of 1966 and 1971. The code of 1966 was misused by one imposter and he was caught during the family tree verification when the descendants refused to identify the imposter. The same imposter or any other person can now try to use the unused legacy data code of Barman during the process of filing of claims. This was only one such example and there have been number of such incidents were legacy data codes were tried to be misused. The possibility of imposters bribing or issuing threats to the real descendants also cannot be ruled out.
The report further pointed out that it would not be feasible to club all the legacy data codes of one legacy person. The feasibility of clubbing the legacy data codes of same person was examined and it was found that it would not be possible to do so because of various reasons. The report said that different spellings of same names appeared in NRC of 1951 and electoral rolls, in some cases, surnames were missing. Moreover, people change locations and this also led to a problem in clubbing the legacy data codes of same persons.
