Congress wants removal of new NRC co-ordinator in Assam

Assam unit of Congress on Tuesday moved Register General of India (RGI) seeking removal of new state co-ordinator of NRC, Hitesh Dev Sarma, citing his "objectionable posts" regarding the citizenship verification exercise.

A team of the opposition party visited the RGI office in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum seeking removal of Sarma, who was appointed on November 11 in place of IAS officer, Prateek Hajela.

The team comprising senior Congress leaders, Debabrat Saikia and Rakibul Hussain demanded that Sarma be removed for his biased stand on the NRC.

Before taking over as NRC co-ordinator, Sarma had allegedly posted on Facebook against NRC and against Bengali speaking Muslims.

Sarma, a senior Assam civil service officer was appointed as the new NRC state co-ordinator after Hajela was released for deputation to his home state Madhya Pradesh, as per an order of the Supreme Court. But Sarma is yet to take charge apparently due to the objections raised by various quarters.

DH on Saturday highlighted how the remaining work of the NRC exercise was affected due to the absence of the NRC state co-ordinator.

Left parties in the state had also sought Sarma's removal.

Congress divided over CAB

Although Congress is opposed to NDA's Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, a section of the party leaders have publicly criticised the stand saying it was affecting the party's prospect, particularly in South Assam, having majority Bengali speaking voters.

"Assamese people are also voting BJP despite the Citizenship bill. So an opposite stand is definitely harming us," Congress MLA, Kamalakshya Dey Purkayastha told reporters.

Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Tarun said the party chose to oppose the CAB as it seeks to give citizenship on religious lines and was against the Assam Accord of 1985. The accord promised to detect foreigners with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off but the bill seeks to allow non-Muslim migrants till December 2014 to apply for Indian citizenship after a stay of six years.