NRC Assam coordinator dismisses reports of Rohingya migrant’s inclusion in draft list

PTI, Jul 24, 2019, 11:41 AM IST

Guwahati: Assam coordinator of National Register of Citizens, Prateek Hajela, has termed media reports of inclusion of a Rohingya migrant in the draft NRC as ‘false’ and ‘baseless’. Reports on inclusion of a Rohingya migrant in the draft NRC were published in some dailies on Sunday and Monday.

“In this connection, it is clarified that this news is absolutely false as the said Alam Hussain Mazumdar was not included in draft NRC on account of being found ineligible in family tree verification and for submitting a forged birth certificate,” he said.

This clarification is being issued as irresponsible false reporting has the potential of casting aspersions on the purity of the NRC, Hajela said.

He said the media reports appeared to have been published without verification from the NRC authorities.

Alleging wrongful inclusions and exclusions in the NRC, the Centre and the Assam government had on July 19 sought from the Supreme Court extension of the July 31 deadline for publication of the final draft.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman took note of the submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the state government, that they be allowed to undertake verification of 20 percent random samples of citizens due to wrongful inclusions or exclusions in the NRC.

The court fixed the applications of both the governments for deliberation on July 23 on the issue of proposed sample survey.