File photo of people waiting to check their names on the draft list at the National Register of Citizen centre... Read More

GUWAHATI: Many NRC applicants in Assam who had submitted refugee registration certificates to back their residency claims are in a fix after the authorities rejected 60 out of every 100 such documents on grounds of unavailability of corresponding records with the government to corroborate their authenticity.

“This is just a conservative estimate. The number could be higher,” said an official involved in the process of updating the NRC for the first time since 1951.

Refugee registration certificates were mainly submitted by descendants of refugees belonging to Bengali, Koch, Garo, Hajong and Dalu communities that are now spread across the state. Under NRC rules, a refugee registration certificate is among 15 documents that are accepted as proof of an applicant or the person’s ancestors being residents of Assam before midnight on March 24, 1971. This is the cut-off date for identifying illegal migrants, as stipulated in the Assam Accord of 1985.

“More than 1,000 people from at least 250 households in Bonda, Chandrapur and the neighbouring areas of Kamrup (metropolitan) district had submitted refugee registration certificates for inclusion in the draft NRC. This is the only document they possess to prove their or their ancestors’ residency status before March 25, 1971. Many of them did not make it to the draft NRC. I don’t know what's in store with six days to go for the final NRC to be published (on August 31),” said Doren Sangma, a 50-year-old resident of Bonda.

Sangma, who belongs to the Garo community, said his father Jairam Marak had fled Mymensingh district, which is now part of Bangladesh , in 1964 because of communal tension there. He entered Assam as a refugee, for which his son has a certificate to show. But Sangma, a carpenter, did not make it to the draft NRC. He has been carrying the ‘D’ voter tag against his name since 1997.

According to some estimates, 5 lakh Hindu refugees fleeing East Pakistan entered Assam till the 1960s, including those who arrived immediately after Partition in 1947.

“A substantial number of these people have failed to qualify for inclusion in the draft NRC because the refugee certificates they submitted did not show up in government records. Also, a large number of the certificates submitted were damaged beyond recognition and were, therefore, not accepted,” the official said.

Organisations part of or aligned with the Sangh Parivar have been campaigning for the inclusion of these people in the NRC, saying “victims of Partition” and their descendants cannot be treated as foreigners. “It will be unfortunate if a large number of people like them are left out. We are considering legal options because we cannot leave them in the lurch if they don't make it to the final NRC,” an RSS functionary said.

Besides refugee registration certificates, the documents accepted as proof of legal residency include the NRC of 1951, electoral rolls up to midnight of March 24, 1971, land and tenancy records, citizenship certificate, permanent residential certificate, passport, LIC policy, government licence or certificate, government employment certificate, bank or post office accounts, birth certificate, educational certificate and court records. All the documents that qualify for inclusion in the NRC need to have been issued before midnight of March 24, 1971.

