3 min readGuwahatiJun 19, 2018 07:17 AM IST
First published on: Jun 19, 2018 at 07:17 AM IST
Villagers use a makeshift raft to cross a flooded area in the Nagaon district, in the northeastern state of Assam (Reuters)
The flood situation in Assam, especially the Barak valley region, remained grim on Monday and it has cast its shadow on the completion of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) work and publication of the final draft on June 30.
Assam State Disaster Management Authority officials said that on Monday two more people were killed, taking the toll of flood-related deaths in the state to 14 — 11 killed due to drowning and three crushed under landslides in the last six days.
The three districts of Barak valley region — Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi — remain the worst affected with at least 435 relief camps and relief distribution centres opened and around 1.6 lakh people staying in the relief camps.
Prateek Hajela, NRC state coordinator told The Indian Express that with the three districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi reeling under floods, work at around 70 NRC Seva Kendras (NSKs) have been affected. Floods have led to the loss of five working days. “Almost all NRC work at this point is NSK-centric, particularly the data entry operations. If the NSKs get affected or even the communication to the NSKs gets affected then it starts affecting our NRC progress adversely,” Hajela said. “Our works are completely back-to-back and every day is crucial. We are observing the situation closely and decide accordingly,” he added.
The NRC is the register containing names of Indian citizens — and is an attempt to identify illegal immigrants in Assam. An NRC was prepared in 1951 and it is now being “updated to include the names of those persons (or their descendants) who appear in the 1951 NRC or in any of the Electoral Rolls or in any one of the other admissible documents issued up to midnight of March 24, 1971, which would prove their presence in Assam or in any part of India on or before March 24, 1971”.
The deadline for the final draft of the NRC has been set by the Supreme Court for June 30. The first draft — that verified 1.9 crore people out of 3.29 crore who applied as legal citizens of India — was published on the midnight of January 1.
NSKs are basically technologically-quipped held-desks to assist people in enrolling themselves in the NRC update process and one NSK covers an average of 10 villages.
Villagers use a makeshift raft to cross a flooded area in the Nagaon district, in the northeastern state of Assam (Reuters)
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