The Assam Government will issue rejection slips to 19 lac people whose name did not find a place in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), starting from March 20. The slips will specify the reason for the exclusion of their names from the final list.
It was confirmed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary while answering a written query by Congress MLA Rekibuddin Ahmed. Patowary said that 12% of work-related to the scanning of ‘speaking order’ was left and that rejection slips would be issued after the work gets completed around March 20.
The Parliamentary Affairs Minister also informed in reply to a separate query by Congress MLA Abul Kalam Rasheed Alam that a total of Rs 1,348.13 crore have been allotted for the update work. The Centre had extended time limit for filing appeals in Foreigners Tribunals to 120 days from the earlier 60 days. However, the work got stalled rejection slips were not issued.
The much-awaited final National Register of Citizens in Assam was published on August 31, 2019, that has been prepared under the supervision of the Supreme Court of India. This is an updated NRC from the original which was published in 1951. The NRC has been prepared under the Section 4A of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, which provides for a separate citizenship law for Assam which is different from the rest of the country. The cut of date for inclusion was the midnight of 24th March 1971. The final draft excluded 19,06,657 persons.
