Assam Publishes Part Draft of NRC, 1.9 Crore Names Present in List

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The Assam government has published the part draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) which includes names of 1.9 crore people of total 3.29 crore people in the state.

Registrar General of India (RGI) Sailesh said this while addressing a press conference at 11.45 pm on 31 December and said the names of rest of the people are at various stages of verification. The RGI said the complete NRC will be published within the year 2018.

He said this is only the part draft of the NRC and that there is no need to worry if anyone's name has not been included in the part draft that has been published.

"It only means that his or her name is at some stage of verification," he said.

It is a tedious process to verify the names. So there is a possibility that some names within a single family may not be there in the first draft. There is no need to panic as rest of the documents are under verification

NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela

Asked about the possible timeframe for the next draft, the RGI said it will be decided as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court – under whose monitoring the document is being prepared – in its next hearing in April. The entire process will be completed within 2018, Sailesh said.

The application process started in May 2015 and a total of 6.5 crore documents were received from 68.27 lakh families across Assam.

"The process of accepting complaints will start once the final draft is published as rest of the names are likely to appear in that," Hajela said.

People can check their names in the first draft at NRC sewa kendras across Assam from 8 am on 1 January. They can also check for information online and through SMS services.

The Twitter handle of NRC Updation Assam also put out steps which can help p[eople look for their names in the list

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananbda Sonowal asured full support from the government regarding any issue.

The RGI informed that the ground work for this mammoth exercise began in December 2013 and 40 hearings have taken place in the Supreme Court over the last three years.

Assam, which faced influx from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC, first prepared in 1951.

The Supreme Court, which is monitoring the entire process, had ordered that the first draft of the NRC be published by 31 December after completing the scrutiny of over two crore claims along with that of around 38 lakh people whose documents were suspect.

(With inputs from IANS and PTI)

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