NRC Final Draft: NGO Pleads For Extension of Deadline

SILCHAR: What will be the number of NRC left-outs? Thirty lakh or 20 lakh? Such questions are making rounds among the citizens of Barak Valley. In fact, the spectre of NRC continues to haunt the minds of the applicants. A Karimganj-based NGO Nagarik Swartha Raksha Samanvay Samiti (NSRSS) and its members along with the denizens of the town demonstrated before the office of the Deputy Commissioner of the border town, demanding extension of the deadline of July 31 for the publication of the final NRC draft. A memorandum to the effect was sent through him to the RGI and the State Coordinator, citing specific grounds for that.

The applicants have been subjected to a lot of harassment and it continues even on the date during the different stages of hearing, clarifications, verifications and biometric profiling. An applicant has to appear before NRC seva kendras repeatedly to get his or her name enrolled to prove citizenship. From one district to another, applicants receive call to attend and testify to their bonafide of being an Indian.

Most troublesome, even after the names have figured in the draft, applicants are being served with notices. The memorandum signed by Sunil Ranjan Dutta, Arunangshu Bhattacharjee and Nandan Kumar Nath, frontline functionaries of the NGO, justifies the extension on the plea that the process of claims and objections still continues along with verification of documents. In such a fluid situation, cant it be possible to wall up the final draft in a fair and error free manner? If verification and other processes continue, the publication of the draft cant but raise many questions. It is also beyond one’s comprehension if claims and objections are heard at home centre, why should one be called at outside the valley centres?

The memorandum at the same time cites other infirmities. Verification of documents is done at one Kendra and biometric profiling at another. Strong plea has also been made for infrastructure upgrade at seva kendras for document verification and biometric profiling at one centre. This will minimize the physical and mental harassment of citizens. It has also been observed that objections against the enrolled applicants have been made with malafide intention with the sole objective of harassment. Against such objectors, legal action has to be taken. Unfortunately, there exists no such provision.

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