Those not in NRC draft won't be jailed or deported: NRC coordinator

People, whose names have not been mentioned in Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft, will not be "jailed or deported", said Prateek Hajela, State Coordinator of NRC on Sunday.

Nearly 40 lakh people have been left out from the draft which was released on July 30. The draft incorporated names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants.

Ever since the draft was released, the Opposition has been at loggerheads with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre and questioning as to where these 40 lakh people would go.

Clearing the air on the matter, Hajela told ANI, "Among the 40 lakh people, whose names are not in the list, can again apply for the same through claim form (Claims and Objections), which we will take between August 30 and September 28. After that we will call these people one by one for inquiry so that they can keep their side in front of the committee. Later on, we will take a final decision on this before final NRC is published. Similarly, people can submit objections forms between the same dates.

"After we will publish the final NRC list post the completion of Claims and Objections, people will still have the right to appeal in the Foreigners Tribunal if they are not satisfied with the result of the process. 64 Foreign Tribunals are currently working here. They have already declared few people as foreigners in the past," he added.

The NRC coordinator further said that no legal action would be taken against people whose name are not in the list.

"People must be wondering what we should do now. Currently, no legal action can be taken against these people. Nobody can take away their rights from them. The Supreme Court has clearly stated this in its order," he added.

Earlier, the apex court had said that the process of filing objections by those whose names are not listed in the NRC draft should be fair.