Assam NRC List 2019: Here's Whats Next For Those 19 Lakh People Staring At Statelessness

According to a statement issued by the NRC State Coordinator's office, a total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC. Of them, 3,11,21,004 have been included in the document and 19,06,657 excluded.

A total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC. (Image: PTI)

Guwahati: Soon after the much awaited updated Final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam was released on Saturday, which excluded as many as over 19 lakh people, questions over what will happen to these left out people have started doing rounds. According to a statement issued by the NRC State Coordinator's office, a total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC. Of them, 3,11,21,004 have been included in the document and 19,06,657 excluded. The list has been prepared to identify legal Indian citizens and weed out illegal immigrants.  The process was started after directions from Supreme Court in 2013  and is also being monitored by the apex court. There has been fierce debates and assumptions on social media over what will happen to those who are left out from the list. Here's whats nex for the 19,06,657 people who are kept out of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) list in Assam: As per the assurance given by the Centre and as the Assam government, those left out won’t be declared foreigners or sent to detention centres immediately. Importantly, they won’t be deported to Bangladesh. "Those left out of the NRC will not be detained under any circumstances until the Foreigners Tribunals declare them as foreigners," Assam government had said earlier. Any person who is not satisfied with the outcome can file appeal before the Foreigners Tribunals within 120 days. The left out people have the liberty to take the legal route - first at the foreigners’ tribunals (FTs) and later in the civil courts— in order to prove their citizenship. "“Every individual, whose name doesn’t figure in the final NRC, can represent his/her case in front of the FT. Under the provisions of Foreigners Act, 1946, and the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, only Foreigners Tribunals are empowered to declare a person as a foreigner,” a statement from Union Home Ministry released earlier this month said. The Assam government has assigned 56 of 100 existing FTs in the state for filing such appeals. The government is soon setting up 200 more FTs and has already selected 221 new members. Assam, which has faced an influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC which was first prepared in 1951. It is for the first time since then that the NRC was updated.