GUWAHATI: Around 10,000 names will be deleted from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam as many “ineligible persons” and their descendants were included in the list, according to a directive issued by its state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma and officials in the know of the decision.
The NRC, published in August last year under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court, excluded around 19 lakh applicants out of around 3.3 crore applicants.
Sarma wrote to all the Deputy Commissioners and District Registrar of Citizen Registration (DRCR) on October 13, directing them to issue speaking orders for the deletion of such names.
“…as per the reports received from your end through Webform, some names of ineligible persons belonging to the categories of DF (declared foreigners)/DV (‘D’ voters)/PFT (pending in Foreigners Tribunals) along with their descendants have found entry to the NRC,” he said.
As per the laws governing the preparation of the NRC, persons falling in the above categories need to be kept out of the NRC.
Sarma directed the district officials to issue orders for deletion of such names from the NRC as per Clause 4(6) of the Schedule under the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 after “specifically ascertaining the identity of the person”.
Explaining the rule and some other relevant clauses, Sarma pointed out that the authorities concerned can verify and include or exclude any name at any time before the publication of the final NRC.
The Assam government has reiterated that it sticks to its demand of re-verification — 20% in border districts and 10% elsewhere — of the included names in the final NRC, even as it continued its criticism of the former NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela holding him responsible for what it calls an erroneous NRC with allegedly wrongful inclusion and exclusion.