Hitesh Dev Sarma
Hitesh Dev Sarma. Image credit - Facebook

Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator said the final list published last year includes names of ‘ineligible persons’.

According to a HT report, the coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma has issued a memo to all district commissioners in the state to seek details of such people.

The memo sent on February 19 gave the district officials a day’s time to give details of people who should not have been included in the list.

The report quoting the memo stated, “…it has come to the knowledge of the undersigned that after publication of final NRC on 31st August, 2019, few names of ineligible persons are found present in the final NRC.”

It added that the information was to be reported to the Registrar General of India ‘urgently’.

The ineligible persons were specified as DV (doubtful voters), DF (declared foreigners), PFT (cases pending in foreigners’ tribunal), DVD (descendants of DV), DFD and PFTD.

The move comes after Assam Public Works filed a fresh petition in Supreme Court seeking 100 per cent re-verification of the NRC which, it alleged, had names of 8 million illegal immigrants.

The final NRC list was published on August 31 with 1.9 million of 33 million applicants having been left out.

The process was monitored by the Supreme Court and started in 2015.

Citizens were required to show that they or their ancestors were present in Assam before March 25, 1971 through so-called ‘legacy data’ comprising two sets of documents.