GUWAHATI, Jan 22 – The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) today decried the proposed amendment in the form meant for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC), 1951 in Assam, saying that it would help the illegal intruders to get settled in the State.
Strongly opposing the omission of the clauses requiring the place of birth and related particulars of the applicants that exists in clause 4 of the original form, the students’ body alleged that in the name of simplification, Gogoi government is trying to make it easier for the illegal migrants to get registered in the NRC.
Briefing the press today, AASU advisor Samujjal Kr Bhattachrayya said that all the proposed amendments in the draft form indicate towards a vote bank politics by the Congress government to appease the illegal migrants.
Bhattacharyya also added that the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s announcement of house to house enumeration for collecting of the specified particulars should be reviewed as such an action would violate the Citizenship Act 1955, which has laid down separate parameters to update NRC in Assam.
As per the special provisions for Assam, application should be invited from all the residents for collection of specified particulars relating to each family and individual residing in State including the citizenship status based on the NRC 1951 and the electoral rolls prior to 1971.
“The special provisions were made for Assam, to tackle with the problem of illegal infiltration. But, the Chief Minister’s announcement indicates that the government machineries would assist the illegal intruders in legalizing their status,” he mentioned.
“Clauses 12 and 13 that are mandatory in the original form have been made optional in the draft form’s clause 11 and 12. The particulars of entry in the NRC 1951 and particulars of entry in electoral rolls up to 1971 have been asked for in the two clauses. There is no valid reason to make these clauses optional,” AASU president Sankar Prasad Ray said.
“Similarly, in case of applicants who have migrated from other States of the country, the reason for shifting and period from which the applicant have been residing in Assam have been omitted from the modified draft form,” he added.
The executive body meet of the AASU would be held in the last week of this month, after which an AASU delegation would go to Delhi to meet the Prime Minister and other Union Government leaders.
