Assam push to NRC update

Dispur submits documents to Delhi

SAMIR K. PURKAYASTHA

Guwahati, May 9 : Dispur has submitted two pilot projects and standard operating procedures to New Delhi to kickstart the much-delayed process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC). With this, the state government has overcome the last major hurdle in getting clearance from the Centre to start updating the register, a senior official at the state’s NRC secretariat here told this correspondent today. The work is expected to start as soon as the Centre clears the standard operative procedures and the pilot projects. New Delhi has also proposed to amend the Citizenship Act rules exclusively for Assam. The official said the pilot projects would be implemented in the revenue circle of Kamrup district and in one of Barpeta district. This would cost the state exchequer Rs 2 crore, according to the estimate submitted to the Centre. The NRC needs to be upgraded to resolve the long-pending issue of foreigners in the state and to check unabated infiltration from across the border. According to the Assam Accord, the All Assam Students Union (AASU) had fixed March 25, 1971 as the cut-off date for detecting and deporting foreigners while preparing the NRC. The standard operative procedures explains how the state government proposes to upgrade the NRC and what would be the basis of the work. Dispur also submitted a list of documents that would be required to carry out the exercise. Instead of a house-to-house enumeration, which is the standard procedure for upgrading the NRC across the country, in Assam the work will be carried out by inviting claims from direct descendants of those whose names figured in the 1951 National Register of Citizens or in the state’s electoral roll of 1971. Assam Accord implementation minister Bhumidhar Barman said in case of a dispute over lineage, the government may even consider conducting DNA test, if feasible. The Centre has agreed to amend Rule 4 of the Citizenship Act to allow the upgradation of the NRC by inviting claims, the official said. Officials are hoping that the actual work will start in the two circles of Kamrup and Barpeta districts soon. An official here said the work would start once the Centre gave clearance to the standard operative procedures and the two pilot projects. The Centre’s nod was being delayed because of the elections, he added. “We are expecting to start the work immediately after the formation of the new government at the Centre,” he added.

Assam all party delegation leaves for Delhi

Assam on Wednesday rushed an eighteen member delegation to visit the Prime Minister at the All India Institute of Medical Science to wish him quick recovery.

Headed by Assam Assembly Speaker Tanka Bahadur Rai, the delegatiopm will further call on Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee to pressure them to expedite the border sealing work.

Notably, Assam Assembly in its recent winter session, decided raise the issue before the Centre. The team has 8 MLAs of Gautam Roy, Rockybul Hussain along with other opposition leader Chandramohan Patowary.

India may tell Bangla to crack down on ultras

KALYAN BAROOAH

 NEW DELHI, Jan 3 – Bowing to pressure India is likely to ask Bangladesh to crack down on the Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs), with New Delhi deciding to rush External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee to Dhaka later this month. Highly placed sources said the External Affairs Minister has a two-point agenda. He would be taking up the issue of shelter being enjoyed by the North-East militants and urgent need to mount a crackdown, besides cross border trade, sources added.

Mukehrejee is likely to seek to expulsion of select ULFA and NDFB leaders including Anup Chetia, Arabinda Rajkhowa, Paresh Barua and Ranjan Daimary, said said.

India and Dhaka does not have an extradition treaty and hence New Delhi is insisting on handing over the militant leaders.

India is unlikely to send any representative to Dhaka to attend the swearing – in ceremony of Sheikh Hasina, tentatively scheduled on January 5. Instead Mukherjee is going towards later part of January to do some plain speaking.

However, India is unlikely to talk tough at this stage, sources clarified, adding that New Delhi wants the new government to settle down first. The date for Mukherjee’s visit has not been firmed up because the new government is yet to take over charge in Dhaka, sources said.

The recent incidents of blasts in Assam and the emerging links of involvement of the fundamentalist elements based across the border has led the North Eastern States to mount pressure on the Centre to prevail upon Dhaka to end the free run enjoyed by the militants.

Though Mukherjee is going to seek the expulsion of the militant leaders, sources in the Home Ministry said they are not hopeful of securing the custody of any one of the top guns of ULFA and NDFB.

Reports with the Centre suggested that ahead of the December 29 polls, top leaders of ULFA, Arabinda Rajkhowa, Paresh Baruah and Raju Baruah left Bangladesh for Thailand. They are now suspected to be holed somewhere in South East Asia.

Intelligence inputs suggest that the ULFA leaders have been shuttling between Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and East Timor. Ranjan Daimary for instance has reportedly bought some property in East Timor.

India, meanwhile, has adopted several measures to seal the Indo-Bangladesh border in the aftermath of spiralling violence in Assam. The Ministry of Home Affairs decided to replace fencing under Phase-I along Indo-Bangladesh border. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has approved extension of time for this project up to March 31, 2010.

Sources said in pursuance of the decision of the Government to replace the entire 861 Km of fencing constructed under Phase-I in West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya, which got damaged due to adverse climatic conditions and repeated submergence. At least 364 Km of fencing has been replaced so far, sources said.

sinlung.com