GUWAHATI, Nov 20: Registrar General of India’s (RGI) recent letter to Assam NRC coorditor Prateek Hajela asking the latter to treat ration cards as an additiol document in the process of NRC update has stirred up the hornet’s nest in the State.
In a statement issued to the media on Monday, Mab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS) said the order would put hurdles in NRC update work in the State. Blaming it on the government, the Samiti said: “It’s a conspiracy on the part of the government to complicate the NRC update issue so as to get the passage of Citizenship Amendment Bill to pave the way for granting Indian citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis. Even if Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal has been reaffirming the people of the State that no Hindu Bangladeshi will be given citizenship in Assam, the RGI’s letter has made us apprehensive of the worst. We demand the RGI and the Union Home Ministry not to confuse the people of Assam on NRC update and to cancel the order.”
The Samiti said that on April 20 this year the Gauhati Court suggested Dispur not to accept ration cards as NRC papers since there are lakhs fake ration cards in Assam and the issue is still to be disposed of.