SC extends fil NRC deadline to March 1

Apex court asks Hazela to file NRC upgrade report on Nov 5, Upamanyu Hazarika panel to submit fil report on Indo-Bangla border on same day

a Correspondent

New Delhi, Oct 6: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Central government and Assam government to furnish a clear picture on the status of draft and fil NRC upgradation within four weeks, while setting March 1, 2016 as the date for submission of fil NRC.

The apex court has also taken note of the report submitted by the Upamanyu Hazarika panel on the Indo-Bangla border and asked to submit a detailed report on the same by November 5.

The two judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice N Fali riman asked State NRC coorditor Prateek Hazela to submit full details of the NRC upgrade process on November 5.

Hazela will have to file a report on the process of verification of application forms, aims and objectives, field verification, NRC Sewa Kendras, field workers, etc on the next date of hearing on the issue.

When the apex court started hearing on the case, Hazela sought more time for preparing the draft NRC and also for the fil NRC.

Earlier, the court had set October 31 this year as the date for draft NRC, while fixing January 1, 2016 as the date for publishing the fil NRC.

The petitioner in the case, Assam Public Works (APW), also filed an additiol affidavit on Tuesday with a modality for the verification process.

“Yes we have filed the affidavit where we have shown that Assam is facing exterl aggression and interl disturbance on account of large scale illegal migration of Bangladeshi tiols,” said APW president Abhijeet Sharma.

In the affidavit, the petitioner has said that the voter’s list of Assam in 2006 is saddled with 41, 39,329 lakh ‘excess’ voters over and above normal growth of voters.

“It is of vital tiol interest and survival of the State of Assam, that the scrutiny of the applications of NRC is carried out most stringently and we hereby furnish a modality of scrutiny of the NRC applications for the Hon’ble Court’s perusal and acceptance,” Sharma said in the affidavit.

Meanwhile, the All Assam Students Union (AASU) has welcomed the Supreme Court’s latest directives.

“The directives have shown that the apex court is really determined to solve the NRC and border problem,” said AASU general secretary Lurin Jyoti Gogoi.