NRC Assam coordinator: ‘We cannot disclose the reasons why 40 lakh people have been left out’

NRC Assam coordinator Prateek Hajela explains what went on behind the scenes in the final stages of the first draft of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC)

Guwahati: An exercise that saw a Rs1200 crore investment by the Centre and 52000 Assam state government officials work over a period of three years from 2015 to 2018, is now at its final stages. The man who spearheaded the exercise – Prateek Hajela, state coordinatorof the National Register of Citizens (NRC) – explains what went on behind the scenes.

There are people who have been left out of the final draft NRC. Why have they been excluded and what happens to them now?

It is a mammoth exercise – one that has taken three years. We cannot disclose yet the reasons why 40 lakh people have been left out, for reasons of maintaining confidentiality. As for the fate of the people, we need to first conclude the entire NRC exercise and come out with the final list and only then can we say what will or will not happen to the people who do not make it to the list.

Will the final list see more deletions from the existing people who have already been included in the list?

We have yet to publish the complete and final list. What we published in January 2018 was only half finished. The Supreme Court had asked us to publish whatever we had and that list was work in progress. Now the verification of all 3.3 crore applicants has been done and this is the complete draft. But it is still a draft and not to be taken as the final list.

How do the people who have been excluded now seek recourse, given that they may not have anything new to present?
There is a systematic process of reapplication by people, after the draft. For those whose names are not in the list, they can file for claims and objections and we will reconsider the evidence that they had submitted earlier. The NRC authorities will then look into the claims and objections that people file. The NRC verification exercise will not be over till the final list is published. Once the final list is published, people can approach the foreigners tribunal (in Assam) and file their affidavits there.

What is the methodology used to establish the veracity of the peoples’ claims?

We had researched the family tree verification method extensively. We had digitised names of the persons appearing on the electoral rolls of 1971. The legacy data code then makes it easier for the public to quote. So all people who are descendants of one person whose name appears on the 1971 list can easily name their ancestor. We then check for consistency in the claims of the applicants who have quoted the name of that particular ancestor.

Is it not easy to falsely quote the name of an ancestor?

The 1951 NRC data was, through legal means, distributed by the Congress and that along with the 1971 data, is easily available to the public and therefore very easy to misuse. And this system could well be misused by illegal immigrants.

So how do you tell a genuine case apart from a bogus one?