GUWAHATI: In the first draft list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), names of 1.9 crore people were listed out of the total of 3.9 crore applicants in Assam. The list was published on 31st December 2017 and the NRC authorities had then said that the verification process of the rest of the applicants is yet to be completed. The second list is expected to be published on 30th June 2018 and how many people will not make it to the list is the big question hanging in the air.
State Coordinator for NRC, Prateek Hajela, talking to G Plus, had said that till the last moment it won’t be possible to reveal how many applicants will not be there in the list. He had said, “Passing percentage cannot be declared before the results of an examination are out.”
G Plus acquired a document from sources in Dispur. The document contained the minutes of the meeting held on 5th June 2018 to review the progress of the development of common database of foreigners’ tribunal matters as per direction of Gauhati High Court which was ordered on 12th April 2018.
Gauhati High Court ordered the meeting to find a solution after it was “shocked” knowing that a declared foreigner’s (Ali Ahmed) name appeared in the first draft list of NRC published on 31st December 2017.
According to the minutes of the meeting, it was stated by the State Coordinator for NRC, Prateek Hajela that 1,26,520 doubtful (D) voters are present in Assam. The data, it seems, is according to the electoral rolls of 2018.
Where declared foreigners are concerned, the document containing the minutes of the meeting said that the state coordinator for NRC received a list of 57,807 numbers of declared foreigners of post 1971 stream with the data available till December 2017.
A list of 15,468 numbers of unregistered declared foreigners of 1966-1971 stream was also received by the state coordinator for NRC from the border police.
According to border police sources, if a declared foreigner of the 1966-1971 stream is not registered in the electoral roll, he/she does not have voting rights. But the same foreigner, if registered, can vote after living 10 years in the country after registration.
The NRC authorities also received the list of registered declared foreigners of 1966-1971 steam (14365).
The document containing the minutes of the meeting also stated that Hajela received a list of 1,99,659 numbers of persons from border police whose cases are currently pending at various foreigners’ tribunals across the state. The data available in the list is till December 2017.
So totalling the numbers of D voters (126520), declared foreigners post 1971 (57807), unregistered declared foreigners of 1966 to 1971 stream (15468) and cases pending in foreigners’ tribunals (199657), the figure stands at around 3,99,453 persons who are under scanner and might not make it to the second or final draft NRC list.
A source working closely with the state coordinator for NRC said, “It is likely that these people will be kept on hold.”
