Guwahati, Feb 23 (IANS): Nearly six months after the publication of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, the state coordinator of the exercise has indicated that a few names of "ineligible persons" were present in the list and that he has written to officials of all 31 districts seeking details of such people.
In an official letter dated February 19 to all Deputy Commissioners (DC) and District Registrar of Citizen Registration (DRCR) under the subject 'Regarding presence of ineligible persons in the final NRC', NRC State Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma said the matter was of utmost importance as the details have to be submitted to the Registrar General of India urgently.
"With respect to the subject cited and the correspondences under reference, it has come to the knowledge of the undersigned that after publication of final NRC on 31st August 2019, a few names of ineligible persons are found present in the final NRC, particularly who are DV (Doubtful Voters), DF (Declared Foreigner), PFT (those with cases pending in Foreigners' Tribunal), DVD (descendants of DV), DFD (descendants of FD) And PFTD (cases of declared foreigners pending in foreigner tribunals)," said Sarma.
"A list of such persons has already been shared from your end through the medium mentioned at sl. 2 above (webform).
"As such, you are requested to share the details of such persons who are ineligible for inclusion in NRC but whose names got included in NRC in addition to the list shared earlier...," the letter said, directing that the responses be given by February 20.
The letter came days after a police complaint was lodged against former Coordinator of the NRC in Assam Prateek Hajela for allegedly tampering with records related to the citizenship exercise, sources said on Friday.
The complaint was lodged by an NGO Assam Public Works, the original petitioner to the Supreme Court about the NRC updation.
Over 19 lakh people in Assam were left out of the final NRC list, which named 3,11,21,004 people as Indian citizens.
The citizens' registry was released online ending six years of speculation over the mammoth exercise involving 52,000 state government officials working on it for identifying illegal foreigners living in Assam.
The NRC has immense significance for the people of the northeastern state which witnessed a six-year-long movement from 1979 to 1985 seeking detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshis.
The movement finally led to the Assam Accord of 1985 signed by the then Congress-ruled Centre in the presence of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the leaders of the agitation belonging to the All Assam Students Union and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad.
The NRC updation process, started in the state on orders of the Supreme Court in 2013, was carried out by the Registrar General of India under the monitoring of the apex judiciary.