Assam: NRC draft publication may be delayed, says state coordinator

GUWAHATI, June 19, 2018: The National Register of Citizens (NRC) complete draft publication is likely to be delayed due to flood in the state.

The Supreme Court, which has been monitoring the NRC update, had set June 30 deadline for the Assam government to publish the complete draft. The first draft of the NRC with the names of 1.9 crore people was published at midnight on December 31, 2017.

NRC state coordinator for Assam Prateek Hajela told the media, that 50 per cent NRC seva kendras in the three Barak Valley districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi and a large number in Hojai and West Karbi Anglong districts in the Brahmaputra Valley had been affected by the floods. He visited Barak Valley on Friday to take stock of the situation.

"We could have made up if our work was affected for two or three days but it has been around five days now and there is no let-up. We are keeping a close watch on the situation," he added.

Various levels of document verification were going on in these NRC seva kendras.

The first wave of floods has hit the state at a time when the NRC authority was gearing up for publication of the complete draft as per the Supreme Court's deadline.

Registrar-General and census commissioner Sailesh had visited the state for three days last week to check the update status and prepare the districts administration for the publication day.

Sailesh had asked the district administration to take the message to the people that they need not to be worried even their names are not in the complete draft as they will be given the opportunity to appeal before publication of the final NRC.

The NRC office here had earlier sent an SOS to all flood-affected districts to shift the documents stored in the NRC seva kendras to safer places. Sources said no damage or loss of documents had been reported so far.

The source said considering the flood situation, Hajela may approach the Supreme Court seeking extension of the date of publication of the complete draft.

Hajela, when asked, said, "We cannot tell (the media) before we approach the court".

The daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority said Nagaon, Hojai, Golaghat, Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj are still affected by floods.

Source: The Telegraph

Featured image: The Telegraph