NRC updation on schedule, draft to be published by Nov: Hajela

The Assam government today said it is on schedule to update the ambitious National Register of Citizens (NRC), draft of which will be published by mid- November this year.
The state government has sent an expenditure proposal of Rs 498 crore to the Centre for this exercise, which is likely to engage over 30,000 people across Assam.
"We will notify the exact dates of various steps of NRC updation within next two weeks. The draft NRC will be published in end of October or mid-November. After receiving and verifying the objections in the next one month, the final NRC will be published by January 2016 as per original plan," State Coordinator for NRC Prateek Hajela told reporters here.

He said the entire exercise will require huge manpower, including contractual and outsourced personnel.
"Over 30,000 people will be involved in this entire process, out of which 15,000-30,000 people will be engaged directly in the exercise. Rest will be support staff from various villages and cities," Hajela said.
Of the total manpower strength, 5,000 will be outsourced, while more than 1,000 will be on contract basis, he said.

"So far, we have hired 850 people on contract. The first phase of training of the people is going on and the second phase will start from end of this month," Hajela said.

When asked about funds, he said: "We have sent a proposal for Rs 498 crore expenditure to the Centre, which has already released Rs 140 crore. The rest of the amounts will be sanctioned and released in due course of time."
As a first step to update the NRC, the government will start releasing the 'Legacy Data' from this month, he added.