Guwahati, Oct. 2: The Board of Secondary Education, Assam (Seba) is sweating over verification work related to the update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) as it could disrupt its preparation for the 2016 matric examination.

Seba will be responsible for verifying the matric admit cards that NRC applicants have submitted as proof of links with their ancestors who have lived in Assam between 1951 and March 24, 1971.

The NRC authorities have already written to Seba asking them to be ready to verify matric admit cards. According to sources in the office of the state coordinator of national registration, Assam, the admit cards could total over 50 lakh.

"We are still segregating the various documents but the admit cards would number more than 50 lakh," a source said. He said efforts were being made to send these electronically to Seba. "But Seba has digitised a very small quantum of records," he said.

Seba chairman Dhandev Mahanta told The Telegraph that it would be tough to carry out two jobs simultaneously - verification of admit cards for the NRC update and preparation for the matric exam. He said the Seba has records of admit cards from 1963.

"Since digitisation of records started only three years ago, we will have to manually check and verify over 90 per cent admit cards that the NRC applicants have submitted. We have already started the process of registration for candidates appearing for the 2016 matric exam. Subsequently, registration cards will be issued to the students. The board is also busy in conducting various examinations, including pre-matric tests. We cannot engage manpower from outside to verify admit cards for the NRC update since strict confidentiality has to be maintained for the records in the board's office," Mahanta said.

Over four lakh candidates appear in the matric exam every year and thus, Seba has to start its preparation from September to conduct the test smoothly.

Seba conducts the exam across the state from February every year. The Supreme Court had initially set July 31 as the deadline for submission of NRC application forms but in an order on July 21, it allowed the state coordinator to extend the dates as required while leaving the date for publication of the final NRC - on or before January 1, 2016 - untouched.

Over 100 per cent households in Assam have submitted NRC applications till August 31 (an extended deadline).

Mahanta said even though the NRC authorities have not yet informed Seba about the number of admit cards to be verified, the board's preparation for matric might be disrupted if the verification order is very tall.

"We can neither ignore matric exam nor the NRC update since both are very important events for the people of Assam," the board chairman said.

The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) has demanded that Dispur make suitable alternative arrangements for Seba so that it could execute both the NRC verification and matric exam without any disruption.

The union has already asked deputy commissioners to exempt officials involved in the verification of documents for the NRC update from other engagements.