Only 1,032 doubtful cases in Assam’s final NRC draft, says RTI reply
Refuting the stand of the BJP government in Assam, of lakhs of illegal immigrants being included in the final NRC list of 2019, a recent RTI reply by none other than the state coordinator of NRC has revealed that there are only 1,032 such cases, which were filed in an affidavit at the Gauhati High Court. But even this goes against the decision of the RGI to have the Assam government issue rejection slips to those not included in the NRC list, so that they can start appealing their cases.
While the final citizens’ register in Assam, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is yet to be notified by the Registrar General of India (RGI), which works under the Union Home Ministry, the BJP-led state government in Assam has rejected the NRC in its current form and demanded a re-verification—of at least 30 per cent names in areas bordering Bangladesh and 10 per cent in the rest of the state. The reasoning is that lakhs of “illegal migrants” were included in the register while genuine citizens were excluded.
The Supreme Court (SC)-monitored final draft of the NRC was published on August 31, 2019.
However, a recent reply to an RTI query by The Hindu has revealed that there are only 1,032 doubtful cases in the final register, and not lakhs, as the BJP claims.
These names (along with the details of the persons) were filed in an affidavit, under the category of “illegal foreigners”, and submitted to the Gauhati High Court by the state coordinator, NRC (who gave the RTI reply as well) in December 2020.
The RTI reply noted that no rejection slips have been issued to those excluded from the NRC list published on August 31, 2019 (numbering 19,06,657, with 3.11 crore included) as they “can be issued only after publication of the final NRC”, implying the delay is at the union government’s end as the Registrar General of India (RGI) that works under the Union Home Ministry.
But there is another issue too
But there is another bigger issue to be considered here. The Supreme Court has, on five occasions, called the 2019 register as final. Moreover, the RGI has repeatedly asked the state coordinator to issue rejection slips to those excluded from the NRC, but the latter has refused and has, thus, questioned the entire SC-monitored process.
This is a gross injustice to the 19 lakh-plus people who are waiting to prove their citizenship for more than two years.
