Ahead of the release of the final Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC), state cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the government has “lost hope” on the present form of the NRC right after the draft where several genuine Indians were left out.

He further said that the final NRC, which aims to identify legal residents and weed out illegal immigrants, cannot be termed as a “red-letter” for the Assamese society.

“In districts near the Bangladesh border – like South Salmara and Dhubri – the rate of exclusion is the lowest. In Bhumiputra district, it’s high. How it can be? We are not interested about this NRC any more,” Sarma said while speaking to reporters.

Indicating he has very little faith that the list would help get rid of foreigners, the minister said that he just wanted the NRC publication process to pass off peacefully.

“The NRC is no quarter-final… semi-final and final for driving out Bangladeshis, wait a while you will see more finals under the BJP regime… see how we drive them out,” he added.

Meanwhile, the final citizens’ list in Assam was published on Saturday including names of 3.1 crore people and leaving out 19 lakh names.

The citizens’ list was published amid tightened security and a ban on assembly of more than four people in some sensitive places.

Adequate arrangements have been made to ensure that there is no law and order problem post the publication of the NRC.

Apart from the forces of the Assam Police, 218 companies of additional forces have also been deployed to ensure safety and security for all. The police have declared 14 districts as sensitive areas.

Keeping in view the far-reaching implications of the move, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has called upon the people of the state to maintain peace and tranquillity.

The draft published on July 30, 2018, included the names of 2.9 crore people out of total applications of 3.29 crore. Forty-one lakh people were left out in the draft.

The final NRC list comes 13 months after the Complete Draft NRC was published on July 30 last year.

The update process of NRC started in 2013 when the Supreme Court of India passed orders for its update. Since then, the apex court bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R Fali Nariman has been monitoring it continuously.