Initiate re-verification or scrap Assam NRC, says APW

Speaking to ETV Bharat's senior correspondent Gautam Debroy, Assam Public Works president Abhijeet Sharma said that the organisation has decided to move the apex court, claiming that the NRC published in August 2019 carries the names of several illegal Bangladeshis.

New Delhi: The Assam Public Works (APW) on Wednesday said that it has decided to file a fresh affidavit in the Supreme Court demanding re-verification of the National Register of Citizen (NRC) process in Assam.

Speaking to ETV Bharat in New Delhi, APW president Abhijeet Sharma claimed that the NRC carries names of several illegal Bangladeshis.

"The present NRC coordinator Hitesh Dev Sharma has filed an affidavit in the Gauhati High Court with substantiating documents that the NRC published in August 2019 carries names of several illegal Bangladeshis," Sharma said.

After the present NRC coordinator submitted an affidavit in Gauhati High Court challenging the final NRC, APW has decided to move to the apex court over the matter.

It may be mentioned here that APW, a non-governmental organisation, was the first petitioner in the NRC case following which a mammoth exercise of updating NRC took place in the state.

Sharma said that NRC in its current form cannot be accepted. He said that the omission of all illegal names from the NRC is a must for an error-free voter list.

Read:Assam govt committed to protect rights of tribals: Sonowal

"With Assembly election in Assam is knocking the door, there is every possibility that political parties might use NRC issue as vote bank politics," Sharma said.

The APW alleged that names of more than 80 lakh illegal voters have been included in the final NRC that was published in August 2019.

As many as 19 lakh people were also left out from the final NRC list. The APW has also accused the former NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela of siphoning a huge amount of money released from the Centre for the NRC updation process.

On earlier occasions, both the Centre and state government made several appeals in the SC seeking re-verification before the final NRC was published.

The court, however, turned down their appeals after Hajela submitted that he has already carried out data re-verification of 27 per cent of the applicants.

The ruling BJP government in Assam has also admitted the fact that names of several illegal foreigners have been included in the NRC.

Read:People along Indo-Bangla border languishing for basic amenities for decades

The final NRC was published on August 31, 2019 by excluding 19,06,657 persons with a total of 3,11,21,004 names included out of the total 3,30,27,661 applicants.

The central government recently told the Parliament that NRC will not be notified immediately.

Quoting a directive of the Supreme Court, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said that the NRC coordinator has been asked to enact an appropriate security regime on lines similar to the security regime provided for Aadhar data "thereafter the lists of inclusions and exclusions shall be made available to the state government, central government and Registrar General of India."

The Supreme Court has barred the authorities from sharing the names of excluded people without proper security system.

The names excluded from the NRC were supposed to be issued rejection slip after which they could appeal at the Foreigners Tribunal where they would undergo trial.

The NRC in Assam was carried out to detect illegal Bangladeshis living in the state.

Read:Abducted oil workers tell govt to help free them