NRC: Governments & Rejected Persons in the Dark about Details
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Despite the lapse of a month since the publication of the final NRC (National Register of Citizens) on August 31, 2019, neither the Central as well as the State Governments have got details of the NRC, nor the rejected persons have yet received the rejection orders from the State NRC Coordinator’s office.
A senior official of the Home and Political department has informed that the State government has already written a letter to State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela to let it know the status of security taken for the NRC data on the lines of security for ‘Aadhaar data’. The letter also wanted to know as to when the NRC authority would give the ‘rejection orders’ to the people excluded from the final NRC. However, there has been no reply from the State Coordinator to these queries of the State government.
Reportedly, the National Register of Citizens authority has not yet shared its findings either with the State government or the Central government since the Supreme Court of India directed it to share such data only after enacting an Aadhaar-like ‘security regime’ to the NRC data.
In its August 13, 2019 order, the Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman directed the State NRC Coordinator that ‘an appropriate regime be enacted on lines similar to the security regime provided for Aadhaar data. Only thereafter, the list of inclusions and exclusions shall be made available to the State Government, the Central Government and the Registrar General of India’.
Talking to The Sentinel earlier, Commissioner and Secretary, Home and Political Department, Ashutosh Agnihotri said, “After publication of the final NRC, there are confusion and anxiety among the people. The State government has the responsibility of dispelling this confusion and anxiety. The State government also has some follow-up responsibilities after the publication of NRC. Therefore, we’ve written a letter to the State NRC Coordinator to let us update the status of proving Aadhaar-like security regime. We’ve also written him to let us know as to when the rejection letters will be given to applicants excluded from the final NRC.”
The setting up of 200 new foreigners tribunals (FTs), making the NRC-excluded people know as to how they will have to move the FTs, providing them legal aid are some of the follow-up measures that have been taken up by the government after NRC publication.
While 3,11,21,004 of the 3,30,27,661 people applied for inclusion of their names in the final NRC through 68,37,660 applications were found eligible for inclusion, 19,06,657 were found ineligible for inclusion.
It is also significant that the rejected or ineligible people will be able to move the FTs only after they receive the rejection orders from the National Register of Citizens State Coordinator’s office. Besides, each of them will have to file his/her appeal before the FT within 120 days from the date they receive the respective rejection letter. But it is not yet clear as to when these persons would be receiving the respective rejection orders.