The initial document was made way back in 1951, based on the data of Independent India’s first census. (File photo)

By Hemanta Kumar Nath

Two years have gone by since the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published on August 31, 2019, in Assam, leaving out over 19 lakh people out of 3.3 crore applicants.

The rejection slips, however, are yet to be issued to those excluded so that they can move to the Foreigners’ Tribunals to challenge the decision. The demand for re-verification is still pending before the Supreme Court.

The ones, who did not find a place in the updated list, have since been running from pillar to post, trying to figure out how to get their names enlisted, as uncertainty looms over their future.

The initial document was made way back in 1951, based on the data of Independent India’s first census.

Out of the total 19.06 lakh people who were left out in the final draft, around 1.08 lakh are D-voters (doubtful voters). According to the NRC authority, D-voters can apply for inclusion of their names in the updated NRC.

However, a D-voter’s name will only be included in the NRC after getting clearance from the Foreigners’ Tribunals and on removal of their names as D-voter from the electoral roll.

Forty-one-year-old Sameer Devnath, a resident of Gopinath Nagar in Guwahati, is worried as he has been marked as a D-voter (doubtful voter) and his name was excluded from the NRC final draft list.

Not only Sameer, his father Dhirendra Devnath’s name has also been marked as D-voter in the electoral roll.

Sameer said that he and his family members were Indian citizens but along with him, his father and two daughters, their names had been listed as D-voters.

“My father’s name was listed in the electoral roll as D-voter since 1997. When we were living in Lakhimpur, we had cast our votes in elections, but when we shifted to Guwahati, we were marked as D-voters,” said Sameer Devnath.

He said, “We have visited the Foreigners’ Tribunals in Kamrup district on many occasions but couldn’t find out the case number of my father. I had cast my vote in last assembly election as well. But when I visited the NRC office to enrol my name in the NRC list, the authorities told me that my name is also listed as D-voter.”

There are many other people in the state whose names were left out from the NRC final draft list. They are yet to get rejection slips from NRC authorities to challenge the decision before the Foreigners’ Tribunals.

Shantanu Mukherjee, Human Rights Helping Hand Foundation’s Assam unit president, said that the government should take appropriate measures to complete an error-free NRC as soon as possible.

“If a person lodged in detention camp is declared as a foreigner when he is alive, but when he died, the government declared him as an Indian citizen and sent his body to the family. If the person is really a foreigner, then why was the body not sent to his country,” said Shantanu Mukherjee.

Earlier, the NRC coordinator of Assam Hitesh Dev Sarma had asked all deputy commissioners of the state to delete the names of ‘Ineligible Persons’ from the NRC list.

In his letter, Hitesh Dev Sarma said, “Some names of ineligible persons belonging to the categories of DF (declared foreigner), DV (doubtful voter), PFT (persons with cases pending at foreigners’ tribunals) along with their descendants have found entry to the NRC.”

As per the laws governing the preparation of the NRC list, the persons who fall under the categories of DF, DV and PFT along with their descendants need to be kept out of the NRC list.

The Assam government and the state BJP have demanded 20 per cent re-verification in the bordering districts and 10 per cent in the other districts of the included names in the final NRC list.

Jayanta Malla Baruah, political secretary to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the state government and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wanted to verify the present NRC as there were lot of irregularities which happened during the update process.

“We demand minimum 20 per cent re-verification in the bordering districts and 10 per cent re-verification in other districts. Our government and the BJP want to verify the present NRC,” said Jayanta Malla Baruah.

Baruah said, “I think the Supreme Court will study and analyse the whole situation. If the Supreme Court will allow this, then it will be good for us. There are so many irregularities which happened during the NRC updation process.”

He said the Assam government had already filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court.

In December 2020, state NRC coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma told the Gauhati High Court that the final NRC was yet to be published by the Registrar General of India (RGI) as per Clause-7 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issues of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003.

State NRC Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma also told the high court that the NRC list which was published on August 31, 2020, was just a supplementary list of the NRC and 4,795 ineligible person names were included in the list

Hitesh Dev Sarma had filed an interlocutory application in the Supreme Court in May this year, seeking a time-bound re-verification of the list as “there were major irregularities in the process”.

The Assam Public Works (APW), the original petitioner in the Supreme Court for NRC update, also raised a similar demand, holding the former state coordinator Prateek Hajela responsible for the “anomalies”.

This story first appeared on indiatoday.in