Last Phase of NRC Hearing of Claims and Objections From Today

GUWAHATI: The last phase of NRC update exercise – hearing of claims and objections – is from Friday. While 36.2 lakh of the 40.07 lakh NRC applicants whose names did not figure in the complete draft NRC have claimed to be Indians, there have been objections against the inclusion of around two lakh of the 2.89 crore names that figured in the draft. The claimants, objectors and against whose inclusion there are objections are being called with 15-day prior notices to appear before NRC hearing centres across the State. The hearing centres are manned by some 3,457 hearing officers. Going by the Supreme Court-approved SOP (Standard Operating Procedure), the biometric data of the claimants and the applicants against whose inclusion there are objections are to be collected by the State Government, not by the NRC authority.

The collection of biometric data looks like an elephantine task. To get the job done at ease, the State government is going to use the existing biometric data collection setups meant for AADHAR cards. The 1,241 AADHAR enrollment centres working in the State now have been converted into biometric data collection centres for NRC. Such centres are being shifted to NRC hearing centres. During this period, the thrust is on biometric data collection for NRC, not for AADHAR enrollment.

If the names of those whose biometric data will be collected appear in the final NRC, their AADHAR cards will be automatically ready. If their names do not figure in the final NRC the question of issuing them AADHAR card does not arise. UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) has helped Assam in this job.

Those who have already got AADHAR cards need not give biometric data for NRC anymore. They will have to show their AADHAR cards and give ID numbers to the NRC authority.

The apex court has ordered that the publication of final NRC cannot go beyond July 31, 2019 and that the forthcoming Lok Sabha election should not affect NRC update exercise. The NRC update work began in mid-2015. As many as 3.29 crore people applied for inclusion of their names in NRC.

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