Polling, NRC to go on simultaneously

NEW DELHI: Work on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and preparations for the forthcoming parliamentary polls will go on simultaneously in Assam, NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela told the Supreme Court in a report on Wednesday.

NRC work will, however, be suspended in specific areas on the days of polling. The 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state will go to the polls in three phases on April 11, 18 and 23.

The state government had earlier attempted to have the NRC exercise suspended during the general election citing lack of manpower and security, but a two-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had rejected it outright.


The bench had refused to suspend the NRC citing a looming deadline. Though the draft NRC has been published, the process of compiling the final NRC is on. The deadline for the exercise has been fixed by the court as July 31.

The CJI had demanded to know why the two exercises cannot be conducted simultaneously and had accused the state government of trying to throw a spanner in the works.

It had then directed the Election Commission, the state home secretary and the NRC coordinator to sit down and sort out the problem. On Wednesday, Hajela sought permission from the court to deploy additional staff in the NRC exercise after the Lok Sabha polls to meet the July 31 deadline.