The Assam government and the ruling BJP in the State have termed the finalisation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list there as a “mixed bag” with concerns being raised over several “technical flaws” in the process that may have caused exclusion of Bengali Hindu refugees who had crossed over to Assam before 1971.
Speaking to The Hindu, Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the State government would approach the Supreme Court again for a reverification process, on a pilot basis, in a couple of districts to try and address the anomalies.
“The NRC authority has registered many cases where documents were questionable after which we asked for a reverification of 20% of the cases in border districts and 10% in other districts as we found that in border areas, where populations were high, deletions were low, whereas in tribal areas deletions were higher in proportion. The Supreme Court denied that request. We will go back again to the SC and ask that at least in two districts, on a pilot basis, reverification should happen,” he said.