Will Bring Private Member Bill to Abolish ‘D’ Voters: Congress MP Abdul Khaleque

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Abdul Khaleque Congress MP has appealed to the government to do away with the system of ‘doubtful’ voters in Assam. The MP has said that if the Centre does not pay any heed to his plea, he will bring a private member Bill in the Parliament in its next session, seeking abolition of ‘doubtful’ voters in the State.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Abdul Khaleque said: “The final NRC is going to be published on August 31, 2019. However, even now people are being harassed for being ‘D’ voters. The Congress has been worried over the harassment being meted out to ‘D’ voters belonging to all communities. However, the BJP is worried over the harassment of such voters belonging to a particular community.”

On NRC, Khaleque said: “Why doesn’t the government believe State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela who told the Supreme Court that re-verification of NRC applications had already been done? This suggests that this government doesn’t have faith on its own employees. The government is blackmailing Hajela, leading to harassment of people in the name of re-verification. Who’ll take the responsibility of people killed while going to and returning from NRC hearing centres at short notices? Now the government should pay Rs 10 lakh to each person killed in NRC rush.”

On Triple Talaq, the MP said: “I welcome the Supreme Court’s verdict on Triple Talaq. I, however, oppose Section 4 of the Act wherein it has been said that men resorting to triple talaq should be treated as criminals. There are men in other communities as well who don’t stay with their wives, nor do they shoulder their maintenance. I’m contemplating on bringing a private member Bill on this issue as well.”

On the proposed Congress-AIUDF alliance, the MP said that the Congress had tagged the AIUDF a communal party at the AICC’s executive meeting on January 20 this year. “While going for an alliance with the party, we need to decide it first if the AIUDF is a communal party or not,” he said, and added: “However, I’m in favour of a grand alliance with like-minded parties.”

On a number of Congress leaders lining up to join the BJP, Abdul Khaleque said: “Since we are not in power, all opportunists will join the BJP.”

He said that in the recent Parliament session, he raised as any as 26 starred and unstarred questions on various problems of Assam, besides taking part in a number of debates.

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