Will NRC path pace itself towards error-free goal?

The first part NRC draft published on the expiry of December 31 mid-night, 2017 has 1.90 crore names in it. The new NRC is going to be the updated version of NRC 1951. Such an exercise, be it in 1951 or now, is unique to Assam. No other State in the country has NRC.

GUWAHATI, June 4: The second and final draft NRC set to be published on June 30 with names of Indians as available on August 31, 2015 is going to have photograph affixed against each and every name in all print forms. However, the provision of photo copy will be missing in the soft version.

With June 30 nearing, the all-important job of data entry is underway on a war footing. The hearing of less than one per cent of the NRC applicants for whom the hearing was necessitated, but as they failed to turn up for hearings conducted by officials for various reasons, is to be completed by mid-June. Once their data compilation work is over, the NRC authority is going to send notices to them for hearing.

Talking to The Sentinel, State NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela said: “After the publication of the second and final draft NRC, applicants can see their names in print versions with photographs against their names in all NRC Seva Kendras spread all over the State. They can also see their names in the online version which, however, won’t have photo copies against names. Post-June 30 is the phase of receiving claims and objections, and doing the needful. There will be special formats for claims and objections. We’ll let the applicants know how to fill up such forms as to how, when and where their claims and objections are to be submitted in due course of time. There’ll be an advertisement campaign in print and electronic media to bring about awareness among the people. We’re also going to take the pain of sending officials among the public so as to bring about awareness among them on submitting their claims and objections for the inclusion of their names in the NRC.”

On the fear of inclusion of names of foreigners in the NRC, Hajela said, “We don’t want the name of any foreigner to be included in the NRC, nor do we want the name of any genuine Indian from Assam to be dropped from it.”

When asked as to how many names from the 3.29 crore NRC applicants are going to be missing from the final NRC draft, Hajela said: “It’s too early to estimate it. It will be known only after the completion of data entry work. Some rumour mongers do the mischief by saying that a large number of names of applicants will get no place in the draft NRC. These are only speculations without any dependable statistical basis.”

The first part NRC draft published on the expiry of December 31 mid-night, 2017 has 1.90 crore names in it. The new NRC is going to be the updated version of NRC 1951. Such an exercise, be it in 1951 or now, is unique to Assam. No other State in the country has NRC.

Nevertheless, the million-dollar question remains: Is the updated NRC – the exercise having entailed colossal manpower, time and money – going to be really error-free as promised time and again insofar as the undying issue of illegal Bangladeshis is concerned? Can it prove to be a defining endeavour towards securing the living space of the sons of the soil?