GUWAHATI: At least 200 people from 39 families in Morigaon, one of Assam ’s 11 Muslim-majority districts, made it to the NRC draft despite being declared foreigners earlier or their cases still pending with different Foreigners’ Tribunals.

District deputy commissioner (Morigaon) Hemen Das on Thursday said, “The inclusion of people who have been declared foreigners or marked doubtful citizens on electoral rolls or whose cases are pending with Foreigners’ Tribunals was discovered just a day before the NRC draft was announced. There was no time to change it. Now, we are going to do so.”

Das said his office has reported the matter to the central NRC office here. He added, “There are multiple levels of working for the NRC update. It is the central NRC office that has the system to locate at which level such mistakes have taken place.” He further said, “The NRC process is transparent and all wrong inclusions and exclusions will be rectified before the final NRC.”

NRC officials suspect that these persons intentionally hid their antecedents when they submitted their applications for inclusion in the NRC. Rules say a person has to declare in his or her application whether he or she has been declared a foreigner or a case is pending with a Foreigners’ Tribunal or he or she has been marked doubtful voter.

Of the 40 lakh people left out of the NRC draft, the names of 2.48 lakh people, who include doubtful voters or descendants of such voters and whose cases are pending with Foreigners’ Tribunals, have been ‘put on hold’.

