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    Assam: NRC draft will be out on or before July 31, Registrar General tells SC

    Synopsis

    Updation of NRC 1951 is being monitored by the Supreme Court. The RGI has filed a interlocutory application in the SC. The court will hear the case on November 22.

    ET Bureau
    GUWAHATI: Registrar General of India (RGI) Sailesh has submitted before the Supreme court that the entire process of preparation and publication of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam will be completed on or before July 31, 2018.

    Updation of NRC 1951 is being monitored by the Supreme Court. The RGI has filed a interlocutory application in the SC. The court will hear the case on November 22.

    Earlier, the state government had announced that the draft NRC would be released by December 31, 2017.

    The rescheduling of timeline came after NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela submitted to SC a status report stating that out 3.21 crore applications, around 2 crore have been verified so far.

    Intelligence inputs reveal there may be law and order problems in the wake of the NRC draft.

    High-level meetings have been held between state and home ministry officials to prepare for any such upheavals. Security forces and the army have been kept in the loop.

    The state government has sought additional central para military forces to deal with situation. Home minister Rajnath Singh last week reviewed the progress of NRC with Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

    There are apprehensions in various quarters that there has been an attempt to drop the names of many from the register. Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind's chief Maulana Syed Arshad Madani said the state government was making a deliberate attempt to delay the NRC updation process.

    The Jamiat chief recently courted controversy by saying that Assam will burn if 50 lakh Muslims are left out of NRC. As many as six FIRs have been filed against him in different police stations of Assam for trying to foment trouble and disturb communal harmony.

    Madani said, "A section of people is trying to convert Assam into Myanmar. The controversy created by my comment and protest against the same have served our purpose and the world is now aware of the plight of Assam's Muslims."

    "If you do not accept panchayat certificate as a valid document for citizenship, a large number of people will be left out. And those left out will not sit silently," Madani added.

    Earlier this year, the Gauhati High Court had passed an order saying panchayat residency certificate has "no statutory sanctity".

    Assam BJP president Ranjit Kumar Das said Madani and those intellectuals who took part the conclave organised by Delhi Action Committee for Assam in New Delhi — where Madani had made his explosive remarks — have hurt the sentiment of Assam's people.

    Sonowal said that government will deal firmly with those trying todisturb the communal harmony in the state. (Eom)


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