Guwahati, October 27: National Register of Citizens’ (NRC) Assam coordinator, Prateek Hajela stated in the Supreme Court that the outcry across the state against the exclusion of five identity documents as a basis for filing claims and objections is an attempt to get the illegal immigrants included in the NRC.
The Assam government released the second and final draft of NRC on July 30. 2,89, 83,677 persons were found eligible out of 3,29,91,384 applicants in the final draft of the NRC. Names of 4,007,707 people were not included in the final draft NRC. Of these, 37,59,630 names have been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 are on hold.
The five documents are: Names in NRC, 1951, Names in Electoral Roll up to March 24, 1971, Citizenship Certificate; and Refugee Registration Certificate, Certified copies of pre-1971 Electoral Roll, particularly those issued from the State of Tripura and Ration Card, as quoted by Bar & Bench.
The top court had asked Hajela to explain to the Assam government, Centre and other stakeholders why five documents were not allowed to be used for filing inclusion claims.
In a report submitted in the Supreme Court on October 4 and made available by the court to the stakeholders on Thursday, Hajela states: “As NRC claims and objections is the last chance for the illegal migrants, these actions [demand for inclusion of five documents]…are actually a well planned attempt to get the illegal migrants into the NRC…,” as quoted.
Hajela stated that the demand to include all 15 documents for filing inclusion claims and objections was “more of political posturing than real requirement” and further accused the state government of failing to ensure implementation of rules to weed out illegal immigrants.