2019 NRC not final, 4,795 ineligible people in previous list, Guwahati HC informed

Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) State Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma has told the Gauhati High Court that the final list is yet to be published by Registrar General of India (RGI).

The NRC State Coordinator also told the high court that the NRC list which was published on August 31 last year was just a supplementary list of NRC and names of 4,795 ineligible people were included in the list.

In an affidavit before the Gauhati High Court on December 3, Sarma told the high court that the RGI is silent on final publication of the NRC.

India Today TV has accessed a copy of the affidavit where the NRC State Coordinator said that after the publication of a supplementary list of inclusion and exclusion on August 31, 2019, some of the District Registrar of Citizens Registers (DRCR) formally requested the office of the State Coordinator, NRC to change results of NRC with proper reasons.

“Altogether 10,199 numbers of formal requests were received from DRCRs to change the results of NRC. Out of 10,199 persons, a total of 5,404 numbers were for changing the result from ‘reject’ to ‘accept’ and a total of 4,795 were for changing result from ‘accept’ to ‘reject’. It was found that the DRCRs requested to change results of NRC from ‘accept to reject’ for 1,032 ineligible persons belonging to Declared Foreigner (DF), Doubtful Voter (DV), Person having cases pending at Foreigners Tribunal (PFT), their descendants (DFD, DVD, PFTD) and for 3,763 numbers of person who were found ineligible for other reasons, which are still included in the NRC,” Hitesh Dev Sarma said in the affidavit.

Assam’s NRC (National Register of Citizens) Coordinator Hitesh Sarma added in the affidavit that on June 28, 2019, the Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup district submitted a report on wrongly marking applicants as Original Inhabitant under Clause 3(3).

In his report, it was said that a total number of 1,43,522 members applied for NRC under Chamaria Circle, of which 64,247 have been marked and their names already entered in the draft NRC. He also reported that some random verification was done and 14,183 were found who do not fall under the 3(3) category, but they had been wrongly marked.

The NRC list which was published on August 31, 2019, under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court had excluded 19-lakh odd persons and then State Coordinator Prateek Hajela called it as the ‘Final NRC’ after he addressed a press statement.

In the affidavit, the NRC State Coordinator submitted that all anomalies which were detected in the published NRC list were communicated to the RGI in February this year.

“All the anomalies have been reported to the Registrar General of India, seeking necessary directions for corrective measures in the interest of an error-free NRC which is utmost importance as NRC is directly related to the National Security and integrity. But no directions have been communicated by the Registrar General of India on the anomalies reported. Rather instructions have been received for issue of rejection slips and winding up of the operation of updation of NRC. The Registrar General of India is also silent on final publication of the NRC for which it is the only authority to take action and till date, the final NRC is yet to be published by the Registrar General of India,” Sarma said in the affidavit.

Meanwhile, Assam Public Works (APW) chairman Abhijit Sarma, one of the petitioners in the NRC case in the Supreme Court, has demanded that the NRC be scrapped and prepared with 100 per cent re-verification.

“From the very beginning, we have been saying there are lakhs of illegal immigrant in the NRC. Later on, this affidavit filed by the new State Coordinator in the high court has proved the same. We demand a 100 per cent re-verification,” Abhijit Sarma said.

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