IAF Veteran Chabindra Sarma's Name Excluded from Final NRC

Biswanath Chariali, September 2, 2019:

An Indian Air Force (IAF) veteran, Chabindra Sarma, has been excluded from the final updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) which was released on Saturday.

Chabindra Sarma, who hails from Biswanath Chariali in Assam, an Honorary flight lieutenant (retired) failed to make it to the list, although his entire family made it.

It is all the more baffling as he used the same Legacy Data that his parents and children registered with.

The 57-year-old ex-serviceman still finds it difficult to believe how he could fail the citizenship test, despite serving the IAF for 38 years.

The IAF Veteran still finds it hard to believe how they could have made the error thrice. It’s difficult to believe how they could make a clerical error – not once, not twice, but thrice, he says.

Sarma, in all probability, will now have to take legal recourse to prove his citizenship.

After publication of the NRC, Prateek Hajela, the State Coordinator, NRC said, “A total of 3,11,21,004 persons have been found eligible for inclusion in final draft, leaving out 19,06,657 persons, including those who did not submit their claims.

“Those not satisfied with outcome can file appeals before the Foreigners Tribunals”, he added.

It may be mentioned here that the NRC authority has declared that the non-inclusion of a person’s name in the NRC does not amount to his/her being declared a foreigner. Moreover, every individual kept out of the final NRC can appeal to the Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT). The time limit for filing appeals on FTs has been increased from 60-120 days.

Not only this, the Government will provide legal aid to those needy people who have been excluded from NRC, through the District Legal Services Authorities. An increased number of FTs are being established at convenient locations.

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