GUWAHATI: Government's assurance to give ample opportunities to people left out in the final draft National Register of Citizens ( NRC ) for filing claims and objections seemed to have not cheered up many among 40.07 lakh who couldn't make it.

One among the 40.07 lakh is Md Nurul Islam, a teacher at the Paschim Moinbari Higher Secondary School in Kalgachia area of Barpeta district and also the investigation officer of NRC.

Islam, who had perused through scores of legacy data and family tree documents of thousands of applicants in the run-up to the release of the draft, did not find his name in the final draft NRC released on Monday. Islam's reason for not being included in the final draft is that he is carrying the tag of doubtful "D" voter since 1997. Persons with D voter tag and their descendants are barred from inclusion in the NRC till foreigners' tribunal gives clearance.

Out of 3.29 crore applicants, 2,89,83,677 found their names in the final draft.

"What can be more ironical than this that I am a D voter and at the same time I am government teacher and an NRC official. I am a tax paying person having all the valid documents related to my citizenship. Yet I cannot qualify my name for the NRC. What can be more saddening than this?," Islam said.

For many excluded persons, filing claims and objections is a rerun of the "grueling" task of time-consuming process of documents submission, going through verification processes and expenditure.

Sanjay Roy, a resident of Tangla in Assam's Udalguri district bordering Bhutan, said he spent Rs 14,000 travelling more than 500 km to Tinsukia in upper Assam for family tree verification of his wife, yet not a single name of his four-member family.

"My little son skipped examination at the time of verification because he had to accompany my wife to Tinsukia. I submitted documents including voters' list of 1971 for my family, and from wife side documents from 1966 were submitted," Roy said.

"As our names did not figure in the draft, we have to go through the similar-time consuming process. I am a small-time businessman and my father is bed-ridden. As the only son of my father I am worried how I will manage time now for claims and objections," Roy added.

Retired soldier Azmal Haque, a resident of Chaygaon in Kamrup district, who did not find his name in the final draft, said he shudders to think of resuming the same process that he and his family had to undergo earlier.

"Was my father's 1966 voters' list, land documents of 1947 and my credentials as former soldier of the Indian Army not sufficient to qualify me and my family for inclusion in the draft. One of my brothers, who also missed his name in the draft, even skipped a court hearing in a land dispute case in our village and attended the verification process. Now he is also in utter anxiety," Haque said.

Haque added, "We are from well-to-do family. Think of those poor daily wage earners, skipping a day's work means a big loss for them," Haque said.

Congress MP from Sushmita Dev said leaving a large number of people out of the final draft meant another round for ordinary and poor people to prove their credentials for getting their names included in the final NRC. She said large number of people was excluded from the final draft because of consistent changes by the NRC authorities on the eligibility criteria.

