The Supreme Court on Thursday asked NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela to submit the data of district-wise population percentage excluded from the NRC draft in the state.
A three member bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi, Navin Sinha and KM Joseph sought the response of all the stakeholders including All Assam Students Union, All Assam Minority Students Union, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and Assam Public Works on the Centre’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on the NRC issue.
While submitting the SOP on August 14, the Centre told the Supreme Court that distinct IDs will be created by collecting biometric details of 40 lakh people (whose names are missing) filing claims and objections with respect to the NRC.
The court on Thursday also directed Hajela to avoid taking opinions of any political party in framing the SOP.
The apex court has directed Hajela to make available the copies of draft NRC at all panchayat offices so that public can access it easily. The top court said that the claim and objection forms on the Assam NRC issue will be made available to the general public from August 20.
It also said that the receipt of claim and objection forms from the public will commence on August 30.
The court will again take up the matter for further hearing on August 28.
Hailing the direction of the Supreme Court, Assam Public Works President, Abhijit Sharma said that they will submit their take on the modalities to the government.
“We have already worked out modalities to include the names of genuine Indian people who are missing from the NRC lists. Now APW will submit the modalities to the government,” said Sharma adding “Earlier state government did not listen to them. But with the apex court’s direction, we can now submit the modalities.”