Keep cut-off date intact at all cost, APCC tells New Delhi and Dispur

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, May 7: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) met President Prab Mukherjee and Union Home Minister Rajth Singh on Saturday and sought the Centre’s intervention in implementing the Assam Accord, especially Section 6 A of the Citizenship Act, said APCC president Ripun Bora today.

An APCC delegation, led by its president Ripun Bora and comprising party MLAs and MPs, requested the President and the Union Home Minister to ensure that the cut-off date for identifying illegal migrants remains March 24, 1971. Several indigenous organizations in Assam have been demanding that the cut-off date be 1951.

“We have told the President that there’ll be chaos in Assam if the cut-off date is to be changed. March 24, 1971 has been accepted by everybody and must be retained. The Centre must protect the Assam Accord in the Supreme Court,” Bora told the media here today.  He said that the President assured them that he would look into the matter.

Bora said that in the event of the Assam Accord being scrapped now, the turmoil that had been in Assam before the inking of the Assam Accord would revisit the State. “We, therefore, seek the intervention of the Centre and the State Government in thwarting the petitions filed seeking 1951 as the cut-off year instead of March 24, 1971,” he said, and added: “We want the Assam Accord has to be honoured.”

Bora said that another agenda is to put pressure on the Centre to get the NRC update process complete as soon as possible. “The NRC is the only solution to protect the people of the state from outsiders. The Centre should put up a strong fight in the SC to legalize the panchayat secretary’s certificates in NRC update as such certificates are documents that link the parentage of married women only,” he added.

Bora further said: “Those who’ve been working overtime for making 1951 as the cut-off year have their own interest to serve.”

Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Debabrata Saikia, who was also present at the press meet, said: “We’re firm in backing the Assam Accord.”

Former minister Rakibul Hussain said: “Some people have been standing as stumbling blocks in the way of finding solutions to the problems afflicting Assam. The Government at the Centre is also trying to keep some of the problems alive. If the Assam Accord is scrapped now, what is the stand of the governments that had been formed in the State based on the Assam Accord in the past? All should, therefore, be united to implement the Assam Accord in letter and spirit, forgetting party differences.”     

Top Headlines

No stories found.
Sentinel Assam
www.sentinelassam.com