Give utmost priority to NRC or face action

Assam government officials engaged for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) have been asked to give utmost priority to the exercise or face disciplinary action.

In a letter to all deputy commissioners, NRC coordinator, Prateek Hajela has recently instructed that the government employees, who were engaged in election-related works be brought back to the NRC work immediately.

"You are requested to give utmost priority to the NRC work and ensure that the officials engaged for NRC work are not burdened with any other duty. It is essential that focus of the field machinery is brought to the NRC to ensure publication of the updated NRC by July 31 as per orders of the Supreme Court," the letter said referring to an order of the apex court on April 10.

Elections for 14 Lok Sabha seats ended on April 23.

The NRC is being updated in Assam by the Register General of India under the supervision of the Supreme Court to detect foreigners living illegally in the state. "Along with timely completion of the NRC, the focus must also be on the error-free quality of the exercise. Exemplary disciplinary action will be initiated against any officer found violating or ignoring or not giving adequate attention to any NRC duty,” the letter said.

The draft NRC, containing names of 28,983,677 out of 32,991,384, applicants, was published on July 30 last year. Over 40.07 lakh persons, who were left out of the draft were given a chance to file claims for their inclusion in the final NRC.

A total of 36.20 lakh persons of the 40.07 lakh dropouts have filed claims for inclusion in the final NRC.

The hearing of the claims and objections is underway.