As the clock struck 10 am on Monday, Assam scripted history with the publication of the final draft of the much anticipated National Register of Citizens (NRC).
State NRC coordinator, Prateek Hajela announced the publication of the final draft of NRC amid a packed hall of media persons and other officials.
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It was a grand moment when the whole world is watching the proceedings of the biggest exercise of citizens’ records unprecedented anywhere across the globe.
The Registrar General of India (RGI) Sailesh was also present during the formal launch of the final draft of NRC.
Beginning the over-crowded press meet, the RGI said that it is a historic moment for both Assam and the country.
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He also said that the process was totally transparent.
Satyendra Garg, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs also addressed the media.
Addressing the gallery of media, Hajela said that the entire process of updating the NRC that began in 2015 has reached a crucial stage with the publication of the final draft.
He said that now anyone would be able to check the their names on the websites, while, at the same time, the SMS services have also started.
He said that the hard copies of the complete draft, which contains 22 lakh pages, have also been printed.
The hard copies are available in all the 2,500 NRC Seva Kendras spread all over the State from 10 am.
However, only the lists of the respective areas would be available in the Seva Kendras.
The first draft of the NRC, published on December 31 last year, contained only names of the applicants, but the final draft would have photos, place of birth and names of parents along with the names of the applicants who were found to be eligible for inclusion in the NRC, Hajela told the media.
It may be mentioned here that around 3,29,91,385 crore people applied for inclusion of their names in the NRC and names of 2,89,83,677 crore people were included in the final draft.
However, names of 40,07708 number of persons have been excluded from final draft.
These include mostly married women who are settled outside the State.
On the process of filing of claims and objections, Hajela said that people would be given time to check the complete draft of the NRC properly for a week.
From August 7, those whose names would not appear in the draft, would have a chance to approach the officers in charge of the NRC Seva Kendras to know the reasons for non-inclusion of their names in the draft.
The process of receiving claims and objections would start from August 30 and those would be received up to September 28.
No time limit has yet been framed for disposal of the claims and objections and it would depend on the numbers of such claims.
However, Hajela did not give any specific date for the publication of the final NRC.
He said that the date for publication of the final NRC is yet to be decided and that will be announced only after the claims and objections are disposed of.