Assam NRC: 31 lakh re-apply for inclusion of names in NRC

Guwahati: About 31 lakh people out of 40 lakh those left out in final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) have submitted claims for inclusion of names in the National Register of Citizens in Assam.

Informing that NRC authorities have also received objections against 2.6 lakhs names included in the final draft of the NRC, sources in the NRC offices said that authorities would start issuing notices against all the claims and objections from January 31 to verify the documents.

Pointing out that NRC authorities will start verification of claims and objections from February 15, sources said that majority of the objections were submitted in the last few days only.  The claims and objections process ended on Monday.

The NRC is being updated based on March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date. This means foreigners who had migrated to India illegally after the NRC cut-off date will be viewed as illegal



immigrants.

Sources said that neither ministry of home affairs nor the state government has taken any decision on the fate of these people.

Informing that pace of filing claims and objections gathered momentum in last two weeks only, sources said that the Centre's recent removal of a clause which said documents obtained after August 31, 2015 are inadmissible to file claims said to have resulted in the fast flow of the applications in the past fortnight.

The window for 40.07 lakh of the 3.29 crore applicants excluded from the complete draft had opened on September 25.  However, the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the exercise, extended the last day for submission of claims and objections from December 15 to December 31 after the Assam government said the panchayat election, held on December 5 and 9, had robbed the people and officials of precious time