Guwahati, 15th October: The National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator of Assam has asked all Deputy Commissioners of the state to delete the names of ‘Ineligible Persons’ from the NRC list.
The final National Register of Citizens list was published on August 31 last year by excluding over 19 lakh people.
The NRC state coordinator’s direction has come at a time when the BJP-led Assam government has demanded 10-20 per cent re-verification of all included persons to get a correct NRC.
NRC state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma said in his letter issued on October 13 that – “Some names of ineligible persons belonging to the categories of DF (declared foreigner), DV (doubtful voter), PFT (persons with cases pending at foreigners’ tribunals) along with their descendants have found entry to the NRC.”
As per the laws governing the preparation of the NRC list, the persons who fall under the categories of DF (declared foreigner), DV (doubtful voter), PFT (persons with cases pending at foreigners’ tribunals) along with their descendants need to be kept out of the NRC list.
NRC state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma said that, there are many cases found that, the names of the categories of DF (declared foreigner), DV (doubtful voter), PFT (persons with cases pending at foreigners’ tribunals) were included in the NRC list.
“After disposal of Claims and Objections have prepared and published the Supplementary List, whereas the Registrar General of India is yet to publish the final NRC as per Clause 7 of the Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens & Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. And as per Clause 4(3) of the Schedule of the same Rules, ‘the LRCR may at any time before the final publication of the NRC in the State of Assam may cause or direct to cause verification of names of such persons considered necessary’. The DRCR under Clause 4(6) of the Schedule of the same Rules ‘shall, by order, and for reasons to recorded in writing either for inclusion or, as the case may be, exclusion of names, dispose of the report of the verification ………,” said in the NRC state coordinator letter.
In his letter, Hitesh Dev Sarma directed the Deputy Commissioners who also holds the post of District Registrar of Citizen Registration (DRCR) to write speaking orders for deletion of such names as per Clause 4(6) of the Schedule under the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens & Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 after specifically ascertaining the identity of the person.
“The verification would mandatorily require the correct identity of the person so that no ambiguity arises in future so far as the identification of the person is concerned,” Hitesh Dev Sarma said in the letter.
The NRC state coordinator asked the DRCR to submit the list of such persons who are not eligible for having their names in the NRC along with speaking order justifying reasons for each case for necessary action for deletion of such names.
“A software Application for submission of reviewed results of such persons along with mechanism for uploading of the scanned speaking order (freshly written) will be rolled out shortly,” the NRC state coordinator said.
Assam government and the state BJP have demanded 20 per cent re-verification in the bordering districts and 10 per cent in the other districts of the included names in the final NRC list.
Earlier, Assam government said in the Assam Legislative Assembly that the state government had given an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying there should be re-verification of 20 per cent included names in the districts bordering Bangladesh and 10 per cent in the rest of the districts.
There are more than 1.13 lakh doubtful voters or D-voters in Assam.
