The process of filing claims and objections to the National Register of Citizens in Assam started on Tuesday and will go on till November 23, reported PTI. Application forms will be available across 2,500 help centres, said an unidentified NRC official.

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the filing of claims and objections can begin from September 28. The process was to begin from August 30 and end on September 28, but the top court postponed it last month and later deferred it further.

The final draft of the NRC, published on July 30, had left out nearly 40 lakh people, including some MLAs and even a former chief minister. In August, the state coordinator of the register, Prateek Hajela, said those left out would get an opportunity to submit new sets of documents during the claims-and-objections process.

The official said that people can file corrections to their names that are in the draft and also objections against suspected foreigners.

Claimants can rely on any 10 of the 15 documents to file claims and objections. The Centre had allowed 15 documents as part of the standard operating procedure. The court ordered Hajela to file a report on the feasibility of using the five excluded documents by the next hearing on October 23, according to The Hindu.

Eviction process will continue

Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Tuesday said the process of evicting “illegal infiltrators” from the country will not stop, reported PTI. He was speaking at the Karyakarta Mahakumbh rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal.

Speaking about the NRC, Shah said, “The process to evict illegal infiltrators will not stop, irrespective of the Congress’ opposition.”

At an election rally in Rajasthan last month, Shah had raised the matter of “illegal immigrants” and sought Congress’ stand on it. He had criticised the Congress for doing “vote bank politics” over the NRC matter, which he said was a question of national security.

At another rally in Kolkata, Shah repeated his defence and accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of spreading misinformation on the matter.