Floods fail to hamper National Register of Citizens updation process in Assam

GUWAHATI: Devastating flood in 30 out of 32 districts of Assam has not affected the on-going process of updation of National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The current wave has affected 57, 51,938 people and 30 people are killed besides affecting 95,000 hectares of agricultural land.

Supreme Court-monitored final NRC will be published on July 31. Last year, due to flood final draft publication of NRC was delayed by a month and instead of June the same was published on July.

A senior officer in NRC who does not want to be named told ET, “As we have almost completed the hearing of claims and objections floods as of now have not affected our work. Presently quality check, reconciliation of data is underway.”

The first draft of NRC was published on December 31, 2017 in which 1 .9 Crore names out of 3.29 Crore applicants were included. With names of 2, 89, 83,677 people final draft of NRC was published on July 30 last year. Around 4,007, 707 people could not make it to this final draft. Around 36.28 lakh have claimed for inclusion and 2 lakh people have registered their objections.

On June 26 last month NRC was pruned further with Additional Draft Exclusion List excluding as many as 102,462 persons was published.

Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma reviewed the flood situation along with other departments.

Sarma said, “There is no shortage of fund and all the departments are asked to submit their budget for the damages suffered by July 26 and in three months we expect to complete these works.”

He said Deputy Commissioners are asked to have liberal interpretation of flood relief manual. “ Unlike earlier system when Deputy commissioners report on the number of houses damaged in flood use to take two years to come we have asked the Deputy commissioners to complete the process and provide money to flood marooned people and ex-gratia in case of death to family members within shortest possible time.”

On being asked as why flood in Assam is not considered as national problem despite being a long standing demand, he said that there is no formula on this. “Presently Assam, Bihar and Bangladesh are experiencing flooding, while waters from Nepal have flown to Bihar, waters from Bhutan and China comes to Assam. We have to find ways to stop waters in upper riparian states.”

Sarma added that already Rs 75 Crore is released for the relief and rehabilitation exercise. “ I will hold video conferencing with Deputy commissioners and ask them to release Rs 3800 per family as soon as possible so what when these people go home from relief camps they can purchase clothes. I will ensure that that flood marooned people get Rs 95,000 for construction of the damaged houses.”

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal appreciated Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar’s generous act of contributing Rs. one crore each to Chief Minister Relief Fund and for the benefit of animals of Kaziranga National Park. Sonowal said that the philanthropist actor’s contribution at this time of crisis would inspire the affected people.

Sonowal took stock of flood situation in Barak valley and assured all government support for the relief, rescue and reconstruction works in the affected areas. Sonowal first visited flood affected Karimganj district and asked the district administration to prepare a detailed project report for geo-bag protection of the bank of river Longai which is creating havoc in the district.

Kushiyara, Longai, Shingla and Barak Rivers wreaked havoc in Barak Valley for the last few days. Flood in Karimganj district have submerged major parts of the revenue circles in Patharkandi, Nilambazar and Karimganj Sadar.