Demand grows for re-verification of Assam NRC

The demand for re-verification of documents for NRC is growing before pushing those left out of the exercise to Foreigner Tribunals.

Days after All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and 30 other groups representing indigenous communities demanded that the indigenous people be included into the NRC, Asam Sahitya Sabha, an over 100-year-old literary body, also pitched for the re-verification.

A meeting convened by the literary body said that re-verification of the NRC exercise was required to address the concerns raised over exclusion of Indian citizens and inclusion of foreigners.

The meeting demanded that the indigenous people be included in the NRC without pushing them to Foreigner Tribunals to prove their citizenship.

The ruling BJP also raised the demand after over 19.06 lakh applicants were dropped out of the final list of NRC released on August 31.

The state government, however, clarified that those left out of the NRC would not be considered as foreigners and would have to move the Foreigner Tribunals within 120-days from the receipt of a notice about rejection of her/his application.

The All Assam Bengali Students' Federation said that nearly 10 lakh Bengali Hindus have been left out despite many submitting pre-1971 documents. They suspected a conspiracy against the community while demanding that documents of those left out of the exercise be scrutinised again for inclusion before forcing them to the Foreigner Tribunals.

"Why should they go to foreigner tribunals since they are not foreigners. Most have been dropped despite having documents? Sisters has been left out but brothers included, parents included but the children dropped while one child included, another excluded," a leader of the federation said on Monday.

Members of All Koch Rajbongshi Students' Union staged protests across western Assam demanding that community members who were left out be included without visiting the tribunals.