National Register of Citizens Update: Post Quality Checks, PDF copies of NRC to be printed on War-Foot Mode

NRC UPDATE

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, July 23: Even as the authorities looking after the National Register of Citizens (NRC) are giving the final touches to the complete draft document, steps are on a war-footing to generate Portable Document Format (PDF) copies of the NRC draft after the completion of quality checks.

The work entitled ‘Consolidation of Central Database & Generation of PDFs of NRC draft’ is being carried out by NRC authorities. The PDF copies would be brought out for 3.29 crore applicants. The final draft NRC would consist of 22 lakh pages. However, as it would be taken out in three copies a total of 66 lakh PDF pages would have to be printed. This printing process will be completed within July 29.

The printed copy of the complete draft NRC would be made available to each of the NRC Sewa Kendras for the public to check their details. The work on bringing out these PDF copies has been carried out only after the completion of quality checks. Such checks were done against the names of 10 lakh people picked up randomly from the citizens register.

The Circle Registrars (Revenue Circle Officers) carried out the quality checks with a double-pronged strategy. While on one hand this precautionary project ensured that names of genuine Indians are not left out on the other these checks were also a means to sieve out names of foreigners that might have inadvertently got into the NRC.

The NRC is being updated in accordance with the Assam Accord signed on August 15, 1985, and the entire process is as per the directions of Supreme Court, which is constantly monitoring the process. The NRC is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in Assam. The Supreme Court on July 2 extended its June 30 deadline by a month due to the flood situation. The government and the State Coordinator agreed to adhere to the new deadline by July 30 for the publication of the draft. However, the NRC authority is yet to announce the exact time when the document would be formally published on July 30. The first part draft of NRC was announced at the expiry of midnight on December 31, 2017.