india

Updated: Jul 11, 2019 22:50 IST

The Assam government has again filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking partial re-verification of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft list, especially in districts bordering Bangladesh, an official said on Thursday. The court has set a July 31 deadline for publishing the updated NRC.

“Both the state government and the Centre have moved applications for re-verification. In our application, we have sought a sample re-verification of 20% entries in the NRC in border districts and those districts where the average rate of population growth is higher than the normal,” said Ashutosh Agnihotri, commissioner and secretary, home and political department, Assam, explaining the content of the application filed on July 9.

“We have sought a 10% re-verification in rest of the districts,” he said. Dhubri and South Salmara in lower Assam and Cachar and Karimganj in Barak Valley share borders with Bangladesh.

The state government had moved the SC for re-verification even after the draft came out in July 2018 and excluded over four million people. “In our application, we have said that the re-verification may be carried out by an official of rank higher than the one who has been involved in the exercise,” said Agnihotri.

The SC had, in August 2018, looked at the possibility of a sample re-verification and called for a report from the state coordinator, NRC, even as it noted “…the Court should consider the necessity of carrying out the sample re-verification of at least 10% of the names included in the final draft NRC, if required, by a team of NSK (NRC Seva Kendra) personnel from a neighbouring district.” In subsequent orders, however, there was no mention of re-verification.

However, other groups have slammed the government move and called it a delay tactic.

Also read | Ahead of July deadline, one lakh more people excluded from NRC in Assam