STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI, Aug 3: Rattled by reports of names of doubtful citizens made their ways in the complete draft NRC published on Monday, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Friday urged the people of the State to raise strong objection against such inclusion in order to ensure publication of a Bangladeshis free final NRC.
In a shocking revelation, names of foreigners, doubtful voters, and of people whose cases are pending in the Foreigners Tribunal and their descendents have been included in the complete draft NRC. According to reports, 200 such names of 39 families from Morigaon district alone have made their way into the draft NRC.
Reacting sharply to the development AASU general secretary Lurin Jyoti Gogoi told The Sentinel that the people can make use of the NRC objection-raising exercise which is to be started soon to weed out such doubtful citizens names. “They (people) must bring to the notice of NRC authorities any such name that may have got into the draft document. They can fill up the objection-raising forms in the respective NRC sewa kendras,” he said.
Describing the NRC as “the last hope for Assam to prepare a Bangladeshi-free NRC”, the students’ leader said: “Assam should not miss this opportunity.”
Gogoi also asked the government employees involved in the NRC updating process “to carry out their onerous responsibility with sincerity. Their alertness will help a lot in making the NRC free of Bangladeshis.” The AASU general secretary further asked NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela to be equally vigilant even as the NRC updating process gets underway. “His vigilance and monitoring will go a long way in making the final NRC the document that the people of Assam have been asking for all these years.”
“The NRC is an outcome of the Assam Accord. A Bangladeshi-free NRC will be the fitting tribute to the more than 855 martyrs of the Assam Agitation,” Gogoi pointed out.