Assam Cong seeks Rajnath’s intervention to stop deletions of genuine Indians’ names from NRC

Bijay Sankar Bora
Tribune News Service
Guwahati, July 18

Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has aired strong apprehension that names of several lakhs of genuine India citizens, including “some sons of the soil”, will not figure in the final draft updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and hence sought intervention of the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the matter.

The APCC president Ripun Bora, a Raya Sabha MP from the state, on Thursday submitted a memorandum to Singh seeking his intervention to stop the “move of the NRC authority to delete names of several lakhs of genuine Indian citizens” living in Assam.

The final draft of the NRC to be published on July 30 next as per directive of the Supreme Court.

 “So far the inputs we have received from different parts of the State the names of several lakhs Indian citizens will find no place in the Draft NRC due to some political interferences of the Assam Government where (sic) they wanted to misuse the NRC in their political gain by creating religious polarization,” the APCC mentioned in the memorandum. 

The APCC also expressed its surprise over Supreme Court’s directive to delete 1.50 Lakhs names that appeared in the first draft of the NRC with total 1.19 Crore names that was published on December 30, 2017. 

“Apart from keeping on hold the names of 1.25 lakhs D-Voters and their descendants, the names of approximately 90 thousand declared foreigners and their descendants will not appear in the final draft NRC of July 30, 2018. In addition to this the names of another 1.72 lakhs persons and their descendants whose cases are pending in the Foreigners Tribunal will also not appear in the Draft NRC,” the APCC mentioned adding that it does not dispute this as it is purely a matter of law of the land. 

However, the Congress claimed that it had specific information that names of several lakhs of religious minority, linguistic minority and Nepali population would be deleted from the Draft NRC who are not covered under the legal points mentioned in the previous paragraph. 

The APCC pointed out, “Though the Supreme Court allowed to consider the certificates issued by Gaon panchayat Secretaries as linkage proof in case of married women, but the officers at NRC Seva Kendras rejected such certificates during verification with certain motive.” 

 “In many cases the doubtful voters (D-Voters) who were declared as Indian Citizens by the Foreigners Tribunal, they were again given notices as D-Voters. Even some families belonging to original inhabitants, freedom fighters, sons of the soil are also made as D-Voters, to deprive them from registering names in the Draft NRC,” the APCC alleged. 

“Now there is panic everywhere in Assam because of prevailing apprehension that   names of several lakhs genuine Indian Citizens are being left out of final draft NRC,” the APCC stated urging the Union Home Minister to intervene immediately.