Not final' NRC list of 2019; 4,700 names disqualified'

Hresh Sarma, Coordinator of NRC (National Citizenship Register) in Assam has told the Guwahati High Court that the final list of NRC is yet to be published by the Registrar General of India (RGI).

In an affidavit dated 3 December, Sarma stated that RGI has not said anything on the publication of the "final NRC". On the list published on 31 August 2019, he said that she was a "supplementary NRC" and that 4,700 names are ineligible.

The Indian Express claims that it has received a copy of the affidavit on Wednesday.

In the NRC published in August last year under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court, 19 lakh people were excluded, which included around 5.56 Hindus and more than 11 lakh Muslims. According to the state government, around 3.3 crore applications were received for NRC.

The then NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela described it as the "last NRC" in a press conference.

However, the Assam government had mistaken the August 2019 list and blamed Hazela for making a flawed NRC. Soon after relations with the government deteriorated, the Supreme Court shifted him outside the state last year.

Since then the NRC process has been hampered. The NRC office has not yet issued rejections orders to the 19 lakh people excluded from the list.

Only after getting the rejection order can these people appeal against being excluded from the list in foreign tribunals.

In the affidavit, Sarma has said that he had informed the RGI in February this year about the discrepancies found in the published NRC.

Apart from this, he had asked for necessary guidelines for corrective measures in the interest of an error-free NRC which is very important as NRC is directly linked to national security and integrity.

He said, 'However, RGI has not given any instructions to deal with the discrepancies'.

Sarma wrote, "Instead instructions were issued for issuing rejections slip and termination of NRC updation. The Registrar General of India is also silent on the final publication of NRC, while only he can take any step on it. So far The final NRC is yet to be published by the Registrar General of India. "