Assam leaders dwell on NRC boon, voids

Guwahati: The leader of the Opposition in Assam, Debabrata Saikia, on Saturday moved the Registrar-General of India (RGI), Sailesh, highlighting the “ominous signs” of a “conspiracy” which are beginning to emerge following the publication of the partial draft of the NRC which has “left out bona fide” citizens.

The part draft of the NRC was released on the midnight of December 31, containing names of 1.9 crore of the 3.29 applicants.

Saikia, training his guns on the NRC coordinator, the Centre and state government, specifically questioned why names of 48 lakh people were allegedly left out of the first draft NRC in “utter disregard” of the Supreme Court directive; how many of them belong to the Bengali community and why the governments “deemed” it necessary to flood areas inhabited by specific communities with security forces in the run-up to the NRC draft publication though organisations representing all sections of people in Assam had publicly voiced their support to the process. He said all confusion and apprehension, as articulated by Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of the exercise targeting Bengali-speaking people, have been triggered by non-inclusion of names in the first list.

Saikia based his letters on three grounds – the “repeated” attempts to “delay” the process by the Centre and the NRC office coordinator but thwarted because of strict orders from the Supreme Court which is monitoring the exercise; the truncated nature of the first draft “leading to palpable unease” among sections of the populace, “especially Bengali-speaking linguistic minorities”. The third “questionable aspect” is the alarmist attitude adopted right from the start by Delhi and Dispur with regard to the alleged likelihood of law and order problems after publication of the document.

“The best way to address this problem is to identify the specific areas which have witnessed the most number of debatable omissions and send special teams to collect the claims and grievances. This will boost public confidence in the NRC process and defang trouble-makers,” Saikia said.

His letter to the RGI is the second to have been written by a Congress leader over alleged tardiness in the verification process.

News Source Telegraph India