GUWAHATI: The ruling BJP has sought Union home minister Rajnath Singh ’s intervention for extension of time for filing claims and objections of people who were excluded out of 3.29 crore applicants in the final draft NRC released last Monday.

Highlighting that names of some foreigners have made their way into the draft NRC, the ruling party also sought home minister’s help in ensuring that no non-national is included in the citizens’ registry. At the same time, the BJP said not a single name of genuine Indian citizen should be excluded from NRC.

BJP spokesperson Rupam Goswami on Sunday said that the state BJP has submitted a memorandum to the home minister through NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela here on Saturday, highlighting that as 40.07 Lakh people is a large number there is a necessity for the extension of time frame for filing claims and objections. At present the process for filing claims and objection is stipulated from August 30 to September 28.

The BJP said in the memorandum that while going through the NRC list, it has been found that number of foreign nationals have been included, as admitted by some officials of the government. According to reports, in Morigaon around 39 families who were declared foreigners by tribunal have made it to draft NRC.

“We are pleased that this list has included 2.89 crore and the same time apprehensive about the fact that around 40.70 lakh people have not found the place in the final draft NRC including some genuine Indian citizens,” BJP state vice president Manoj Ram Phookan said.

“As the number of excluded people in the draft NRC is huge, we request (the home minister) to take appropriate action by extending the time frame for filing claims and objections as well as disposal of cases,” Phookan added.

