Admin yet to verify more than 84k family NRC documents in city
A senior official of Kamrup Metro district administration revealed that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) verification process is going on a war footing and yet, the documents of more than 84,000 families are yet to be verified.
An ADC level official, under conditions of anonymity said, “Documents of 84,654 Application Receipt Numbers (ARN) are yet to be verified,” adding that ARN is the number provided to every family when they apply for NRC. The file containing the documents of all the members of a family is labelled with the ARN.
The official said that in these ARNs, documents of a few family members are not being accepted by the software used for NRC; hence door-to-door verification is going on.
The verification teams (VTs) are visiting the households but in many cases, the family members were unavailable. In such cases, the VT members contact the family members over phone and a different date is set for verification. Even phone numbers of many unverified applicants are not working, lengthening the verification process.
For the job, 9 ACS officers from the district administration are heading 238 teams.
A district administration source said that 1033 additional manpower from various government offices has been taken for the NRC work which comprises the 238 teams.
104 government officials are kept reserved as stand-by and are used whenever required.
The teams, after verifying the doubtful documents, report to the respective ACS officers at the NRC Seva Kendras in the evening.
The report on the verification is submitted and accordingly the concerned ACS officer writes the decision whether the applicant’s name should be added in the draft NRC list or not.
NRC verification process stalls all other administration work
As the Kamrup Metro district administration has been asked to complete allverification processes immediately, all other works have been stalled for the time being.
A source in the district administration said, “None of the additional deputy commissioners visit the office stalling all other works,” adding that even the Deputy Commissioner is very busy with the NRC verification works.
Talking about the problems the public is facing, a city-based event manager said, “We are trying to get the permission from the administration to organise an event during New Year Eve, but the request is not getting processed as there is no one in the administration.”
Similarly, many other works like the survey to find out how many commercial establishments had encroached lands in Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary is halted.
A source in the district administration said that the Supreme Court has imposed Article 144 to complete NRC process on time in Assam which means that it has been accorded the highest priority.
Last minute verification: City workers rush back home
As the last phase of verification is going on many workers in Guwahati are rushing back to their homes to clarify National Register of Citizens (NRC) verification doubts.
Jatin Das, a fish seller in Lal Ganesh market said, “There are 22 fish sellers who sell fish in this market but now we are only 8,” adding that all the others have rushed to their native place as they have received calls that some of their documents are yet to be verified.
A resident of Birubari, Alka Chetri said, “To drop my daughter at Nichols School, Chatribari, I take a rickshaw every day.” Since the last few days it has become difficult for her to find rickshaw pullers as she observed that there are very less rickshaw pullers in the area.
Backing Chetri’s claim, a rickshaw puller, Achit Boro said, “Many rickshaw pullers have gone to their native places for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) verification process.”
Similarly, many shop owners in the Fancy Bazar area said that employees working in their shops have taken leave for NRC verification.
