india

Updated: Jul 18, 2019 01:31 IST

As the July 31 deadline to release the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) list nears, Assam’s home and political department has notified one foreigner tribunal (FT) in each district as an appeal centre.

“For people who are out of the NRC, there is a designated foreigner tribunal in each of the 33 districts where they can file appeals (against exclusion from the list). We have notified it on July 12,” said Ashutosh Agnihotri, commissioner and secretary, home and political department, Assam.

Agnihotri said discussions were continuing on the fate of those excluded from the NRC draft list but have not filed claims. “There are reports that there are some indigenous people, too, who have not filed claims after being left out of the NRC draft. We are yet to decide if their names, too, will be referred to the foreigner tribunals to decide on their citizenship,” said Agnihotri. The NRC draft list, published on July 30, 2018, excluded over four million people and an additional list on June 2019 left out over 1,00,000.

“We are on course for the September 1 deadline. NRC appeals will be distributed to the new tribunals once they are functional,” said Anand Tiwari, chief of the E-Ft, a platform that will automate the functioning of processes involved in the detection of illegal immigrants in the state.