Assam NRC list: No country for 19 lakh people

Guwahati: The National Register of Citizens secretariat here on Saturday published the final NRC in which more than 19 lakh people have been excluded from the final list.

A total of 3.29 crore people had applied for the NRC, of which 3.11 crore made it to the final list. Contrary to speculations and erroneous reports, the Centre and state government have already clarified those left out of final NRC won’t be declared foreigners.

They would have the option of filing appeals within 120 days in Foreigners’ Tribunals, which will decide on their citizenship status based on provisions of Foreigners Act, 1946, and Foreigner (Tribunals) Order, 1964.

Various political parties and organisations, including the ruling BJP, Opposition Congress and All India United Democratic Front, and All Assam Students Union (AASU) have assured legal aid to those left out of the final list to file appeals.

The state coordinator for NRC, Prateek Hajela, in a written statement said that draft NRC (Complete Draft) was published on July 30, 2018 wherein names of 2,89,83,677 persons were found eligible for inclusion. “Thereafter, claims were received from 36,26,630 persons against exclusions. Verification was also carried out of persons included in draft NRC under Clause 4(3) of the Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003,” said Mr Hajela adding that objections were received against inclusion of 1,87,633 persons whose names had appeared in the complete draft.