Hyderabad: The National Population Register will be rolled out from April 2020 in Telangana state and the lessons learnt from the exercise of creating the National Register for Citizens in Assam are being cited as an example for people to take care from the beginning.
Senior members of the Muslim community have been asked to form groups of youth who will educate people on the importance of having all their documents ready. The papers must be clear, not torn, folded, crumpled, written over or scribbled upon. There are 14 documents which will be required for people to submit.
Government officials who come for the census will check the documents and tick the boxes in their registers. Community elders said teams of women and men must be formed to assist citizens and oversee the work done by government agencies so that there are no objections raised later. Mr Fazil Hussain Pravez, a senior member of the community, explained, “Forms in Urdu are already being distributed and awareness is being created in the Old City. We also require to reach out to those like daily wage labourers who are not connected in the system. Their documents must be checked by non-government organizations and put in place.”
While there is time for the exercise to start, the fears of NRC are haunting Muslims as government documents can be rejected for being improper, soiled or torn during the time of the census. Mr Nazimuddin Farooqui who has worked in Assam and assisted 3.5 lakh people in filling their forms explained, “Citizens of the city are alert but the experience of the NRC has shown that objections are raised on the state and language of the document. The unclear stamp or the erasing of ink over a period of the time has also led to disqualification. For this reason, taking pre-emptive steps and keeping the documents in place is important. It would be foolish to wait till the start of the exercise and then scramble for the documentation process. The reason for caution is because of the experience in the NRC exercise where it was found that government officials were adamant and hostile.”
During the NRC process, support from the community in Assam was not as required. To ensure that this is not repeated in Telangana, various non-government organisations, charity units and institutes dealing with various sects are being reached out.
