Assam: Thousands of 'ineligible' names to be deleted from NRC list

Guwahati: In a latest move, Assam National Register of Citizens coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma has issued a directive to delete names of "ineligible persons" from the final NRC document.

According to reports, the coordinator had reportedly written to all the Deputy Commissioners and District Registrar of Citizen Registration (DRCR) on Tuesday, directing them to issue speaking orders for the deletion of the "ineligible" names.

"Some names of ineligible persons belonging to the categories of DF (declared foreigners)/DV ("D" voters)/PFT (pending in Foreigners Tribunals) along with their descendants have found entry to the NRC," Sarma said. 

He directed the district officials to issue orders for deletion of such names from the NRC as per Clause 4(6) of the Schedule under the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 after "specifically ascertaining the identity of the person". 

While explaining the rule and some other relevant clauses, Sarma has also pointed out that the authorities concerned can verify and include or exclude any name at any time before the publication of the final NRC.

Although the National Register of Citizens was made public on August 31 last year in Assam, it is yet to be notified by the Registrar General of India, leaving the historic and controversial document without any official validity.

"You are, therefore, requested 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," Sarma said in his letter to the districts.

A software application for submission of the reviewed results of such persons along with a mechanism for uploading of the scanned freshly written speaking orders will be rolled out shortly, he added.

"The verification would mandatorily require the correct identity of the person so that no ambiguity arises in the future as far as the identification of the person is concerned," the letter said.

Persons in the know of the development said that nearly 10,000 people have been identified whose names were "wrongly included" in the final NRC and will now be excluded.

The final NRC that was released last year excluded the names of 19,06,657 persons while a total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.

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