New Delhi, July 2 : The Supreme Court on Monday extended till July 30 the deadline for the publication of the draft National Register of Citizens in Assam as the earlier deadline of June 30 could not be adhered to in the wake of the flood situation in the State.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman gave an extension of one month after going through the report submitted by the State Co-ordinator, NRC, Prateek Hajela, pointing to the difficulties being encountered due to the flood situation.

The bench also permitted the deletion of 1.5 lakh names that were included in the draft part NRC published in early 2017 but later on scrutiny were found to be ineligible to be included in the citizens register.

The names of the 64,000 doubtful voters and 4,500 foreigners will be kept on hold and their descendants will be identified.

Taking suo motu cognizance of the concern for the security of State Co-ordinator Hajela, the court ordered the Assam Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police to review his security and extend security cover to him and his family.

The court directed the next hearing of the matter on July 31.

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Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.

Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.

The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.

According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.

Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.

Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.

The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.

There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.

The rescue operations are ongoing.