GUWAHATI: On 1st January 2018, Guwahatians had started the year by checking their names in the first draft list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Many were disappointed at their names not reflecting and many had become confused that while their names did show, most of the spellings in Assamese were incorrect.
A citizen of Guwahati, Nita Das, talking to G Plus said, “My name is Nita Das but in the NRC draft list my name is registered as Nutu Das.” She further said that there were spelling errors in the names of all her family members.
Similarly, after the second draft list was published on 30th July 2018, the complaint about spelling mistakes in the names of the citizens was again reported from all corners of the state.
NRC Correction Form is an application form for those whose names have been published wrongly in the complete draft NRC published on 30th July 2018.
The source in the NRC said, “The NRC will primarily be published in Assamese in Brahmaputra valley but because it is a very important database there will also be an English version.”
NRC process is being conducted under the rules of National Identity Card, and the cards that will be finally issued will bear the names in both English and Assamese.
Hence, given the current deadlines, the citizens who want to correct their names will have to fill up the NRC correction forms online for the correction before 30th January 2019.
All required correction requests need to be made only once in the form. Applicants cannot apply twice or submit two forms for different correction requests.
The source also revealed that when the changes are made on the virtual key board in the NRC portal, the names will be converted into Assamese by the software. Therefore, before making the changes in the online form, the applicants need to practice so that the names are also spelled correctly in Assamese.
Finally, the names will be verified with the main application form submitted by the applicant and thereafter the correct names will be published in the final NRC list.
It needs to be mentioned that names of around 40 lakh applicants did not figure in the complete draft list for which people submitted claims and objections till 31st December 2018.
A source in the NRC headquarters said, “Around 29.5 lakhs claims were registered and only 700 objections were registered till 30th December 2018.”
So these claims (29.5 lakhs) will be scrutinised and finally the names of the genuine citizens will be published in the final list. The applicants of these claims will not get an opportunity to do the spelling correction before the final list is published, as till then the status of the claims would not be revealed. So even if the names are published any possible errors can be identified only after the final list is published.
The NRC final list will not be out before the Lok Sabha elections 2019 is over and during the elections all the government officials involved in NRC updation work will get involved in the election process, said a source in Dispur.
Therefore, an error-free NRC in 2019 looks doubtful.