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National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma has urged the Assam government to unlock biometric details of more than 38 lakh people who appeared for the claims and objection process.

In a letter, Sarma said that locking of biometric details has resulted in these people not getting Aadhaar numbers.

The Economic Times reported quoting an unnamed state government official about the development.

“The NRC coordinator has written to the state government to unlock the biometric details. But Aadhaar does not confer citizenship. Even NRC does not confer citizenship,” the official was quoted as saying.

About 36 lakh people have submitted their claims for inclusion while nearly 2 lakh people registered their objections. These people were called for the subsequent hearings where provisions were made to obtain biometric details.

In the first draft published in 2018, around 40 lakh people were left out. And later, claims were received from 36,26,630 numbers of persons against exclusions.

In the final draft published on August 31 of 2019, it has been found that a total of 3,11,21,004 numbers of persons are found eligible for inclusion in the NRC leaving out 19,06,657 individuals including those who did not submit claims.

The newspaper also quoted an applicant whose details have been frozen: “For availing several government schemes we need Aadhaar number. However, despite repeated attempts, I am not getting Aadhaar as my details are locked.”

The standard operating procedure (SOP) to dispose of claims and objections over the draft NRC states that the Assam government, along with the UIDAI, will carry out biometric enrolment of the applicants during the process.

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