Guwahati, Jan 1: Assam government led by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday recognised 1.9 crore legal citizens in the first draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC). In a press conference at late evening in Guwahati, Register General of India (RGI) Shailesh said the people whose name does not appear in the first draft should not worry as their names are at various stages of verification. The RGI said the complete NRC will be published within the year 2018. “It only means that his or her name is at some stage of verification,” he said.
The NRC authorities had received applications submitted by 3.29 crore people of the state for the inclusion of their names in the NRC. The process of updating the NRC commenced in 2013 under the guidance and instruction of the Supreme court.
The government, afraid of large-scale protest, had deployed scores of security personnel to prevent any incident challenging law and order in the state. There have been intelligence inputs about possible tension in some parts of the state where names of doubtful citizens could be excluded in the draft list.
Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba spent two days in the state last week, reviewing preparations for the publication of the part draft of the NRC and security arrangements, as ensuring peace in the state is a top priority for the Centre and the state governments, another official said.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday sought to dispel apprehensions and said “genuine” Indians missing from the citizenship register would get enough opportunities to incorporate their names.
“No one should have any apprehensions. If the name of a genuine Indian citizen is missing in the part draft of the NRC, he or she will get proper chance to incorporate it,” PTI quoted Sonowal as saying.