Jamiat meets Hajela, criticizes new guidelines

GUWAHATI, June 11: The Assam State Jamiat Ulama (ASJU), led by its president Badruddin Ajmal on Monday called on the NRC Coordinator of the State Pratik Hajela and submitted a memorandum in criticizing the new guidelines issued by him.

ASJU alleged that after the publication of the first draft of NRC, drastic changes have been made in the process of preparation of NRC which seems to be plotted with a biased intention to exclude a large chunk of genuine Indian citizenship. Stating that the Supreme Court has cautioned the State Coordinator, NRC to prepare the NRC on the basis of accepted modalities under the solo supervision of the Supreme Court and without being influenced by other authority, the Jamiat said, “The new guidelines issued by the State Coordinator vide his letter dated May 1 and May 2, 2018 have brought in drastic changes in the modalities which are also violative of existing laws.”

ASJU stressed that matching of family tree confirms claims of all persons utilizing same legacy data, while mismatching causes difference and disputes within the claimants. However, even though there has been matching of family tree, in case of verification of panchayat certificates, holders of such confirmation by family tree and verbal evidence of the same family members is not being accepted and further documents are being insisted upon, ASJU argued. “This is sheer harassment and intentional design to keep millions of genuine Indian citizens out of NRC”, ASJU added. Meanwhile, in the latter half of the day, Ajmal also called on the Chief Minister of the State Sarbananda Sonowal and appraised the same.