Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday held a review meeting on issues relateto the final publication of National Register ofCitizens in Assam, which isslated for August 31. The review meeting was attended by Assam Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Chief Secretary of Assamand other senior government officials. A major decision taken in the meetingwas that the state government would make all necessary arrangements to providefull opportunity of appeal to those whose names do not feature in the final NRClist. Such people will be extended all possible facilities by governmentauthorities.

Indian citizens, whose names do not figure in final NRC, canrepresent case in front of Foreigner Tribunals, reported news agency .Theinitial deadline for publication of final NRC was July 31, but the same wasextended by the Supreme Court till August 31.

While extending the deadline, the apex court had rejectedaproposal by the Centre and the state government to review people whose namewasalready in the NRC draft.The Centre and the state government had demandedtheinspection of 20% of people residing in the border districts. The governmenthad raised concerns that lakhs of illegal refugees, in collaboration withthelocal NRC officials, for their names included in the NRC draft.

The top court has also asked government authorities tomaintainAadhaar-like secrecy with regard to the Assam NRC.Earlier, the SupremeCourt hadalso asked NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela to not complete the work inhaste tomeet the initial deadline of July 31. The court had also referred tomediareports on disputes with regard to the list, saying such reports are notalwayswrong. The court had asked Hajela to ensure that there’s no discrepancyin theAssam NRC.