NRC
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On one hand, the Supreme Court has already set June 30 as the deadline to publish the complete updated draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) and accordingly the NRC offices are conducting the last round of verification of family trees and the panchayat documents submitted by married women to establish their legacy throughout the state on war footing.

While on the other hand, the common people in Dhubri are facing untold suffering due to the utter negligence in duty by the irresponsible NRC officials engaged at different centres in Dhubri.

Delay in arrival of the NRC officials engaged at their respective NRC centres has become a common feature while it has also been observed that most of the staff roam around the centre while citizens coming for documents verification are forced to stand in long queue.

On Wednesday, a hue and cry like situation has been seen at the NRC centre located at Assam Sangha Hall of Dhubri town where the citizens have thronged for their document verification.

People in large numbers were waiting for their turn since 9 am in the morning as the time for hearing was mentioned as 9 am.

However, the officials engaged for the said NRC centre arrived only after 11 am.

To add to the woes of the people, basic facilities like drinking water, toilet etc and even electricity facilities were also not available in the aforesaid NRC centre.

While the people became aggressive, the officials of the district administration and police rushed to the centre and took control of the situation and provided electricity by hiring generators after 12 noon.

Notably, the Assam Sangha Hall of Dhubri town is in a dilapidated condition since long and the electric connection for the aforesaid premises has already been disconnected few years back.

Despite knowing that fact, how the district administration has allowed to open the NRC centre is still a mystery for all.

While approached the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Dhubri, S A Ahmed told Northeast Now that the aforesaid centre has started functioning only from Wednesday and that the administration has informed the officials engaged for the aforesaid centre over phone in the morning.

However, the ADC maintained a stoic silence when asked about the absence of basic facilities in the centre and also about the dilapidated condition of the building.

Notably, on Friday last, a similar incident also took place at the NRC centre located at District library of Dhubri town in which the concerned officials went for offering namaz and remained absent for two to three hours keeping the citizens waiting for the long period.

Dhubri has a total of 137 NRC centres where document verification process is underway.

Mukesh Kr Singh is Northeast Now Correspondent in Dhubri. He can be reached at: [email protected]