NRC update to enter the crucial phase

A CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI, May 3: Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi and apprised the latter about the status of the ongoing NRC update in the State even as the update will enter its crucial phase on Friday.

After the meeting Sonowal told reporters in Delhi that the NRC update is on as per the directives of the Supreme Court and both the Centre and State Government are extending all possible cooperation to the NRC authority to complete the update in time. RGI Sailesh, State Chief Secretary TY Das, DGP Kula Saikia, Special DG (SB) Pallab Bhattacharjya and State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela were also present during the meeting between Singh and Sonowal.

Meanwhile the NRC update has reached a crucial stage with the authority is starting the last and final phase of verification of documents of NRC applicants from Friday. Three verification processes such as family tree mismatches, panchayat documents and hearing of applicants who submitted documents outside the State and country. At present 50,000 government employees are engaged in the NRC documents verification exercise. All verifications will be completed by May 31 and the second and final draft NRC will be published on June 30. The Supreme Court will hold its next hearing on NRC update on May 8.