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    BJP is engaged in doing politics over the National Register of Citizens and creating confusion: Assam Congress

    Synopsis

    The Assam government had sought 20% sample re-verification of names included in the draft NRC in the districts of Assam bordering Bangladesh and a 10% sample re-verification of names included in the draft NRC in the remaining districts. Earlier the Supreme Court has rejected the re-verification plea.

    Untitled-3Agencies
    Guwahati: Congress in Assam alleged that BJP is engaged in doing politics over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and creating confusion.

    Assam BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass on Monday said that if anomalies are found in the re-verification exercise in NRC, Assam government must be given responsibility for bringing out fresh NRC.

    The Assam government had sought 20% sample re-verification of names included in the draft NRC in the districts of Assam bordering Bangladesh and a 10% sample re-verification of names included in the draft NRC in the remaining districts. Earlier the Supreme Court has rejected the re-verification plea.

    Union Home minister, Amit Shah along with Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and finance minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma discussed NRC on Sunday in New Delhi.

    Sarma said that the Centre will back the state government’s plea in Supreme Court for re-verification.

    Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia stated on 2nd September, 2019, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a statement to the effect that the NRC was prepared in a scientific manner under the supervision of the Supreme Court and that it was a fair and non-discriminatory document.

    Saikia alleged that the chief minister, finance minister and the state unit BJP president are now striving to create confusion among the people of Assam, which is unfortunate. “They are saying that the Centre has agreed to the state Government’s proposal for 20% re-verification of names in the NRC in the border districts of Assam and 10% re-verification in other districts. The matter of re-verification had been discussed in the Supreme Court on 5th September, 2018 and the Court had favoured 10% re-verification of names and that too by authorities of districts other than the home districts of the people concerned. As a result, many people from Kamrup (Rural) district had to go to Sivasagar district for verification, people from Goalpara district had to travel to Silchar, etc. Some persons died in a bus accident at Jorabat while travelling for the verification process in another district."

    The leader of the opposition added that the Supreme Court passed another order on 23rd July, 2019 which rejected the Central and state governments’ plea for re-verification of names. The Court had mentioned in its order that the district-wise data provided by the then State Coordinator of NRC, Prateek Hajela revealed that up to 27% re-verification had been carried out in many districts.

    “This was because each and every member of large families was summoned to attend hearings pertaining to claims and objections. Many families sold land, livestock etc. in order to attend these hearings to prove their Indian citizenship. The process of claims and objections involving the final NRC is yet to be carried out. As such, it is illogical to question the validity of the final NRC at this juncture”

    Saikia added that senior BJP leaders of Assam are trying to indulge in politics over the NRC. “The Supreme Court had permitted publication of the final NRC more than a year ago and Article 142 of the Constitution makes it mandatory on the Central and state governments to implement orders passed by the apex court. If the Central and state Government want to flout the Supreme Court and carry out 20% and 10% re-verification of names included in the NRC, then the Constitution of India will have to be amended”.

    He added, "BJP wants to render the NRC irrelevant by granting citizenship to certain sections of foreign nationals who came to India as late as 2014.”

    The final NRC list published on August 31 last year had found more than 31.1 million people eligible to be included in the registry while leaving out over 1.9 million people.


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