‘Bill will spell doom for Assam’

GUWAHATI, May 28: The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has now teamed up with the All Assam Lawyers’ Association (AALA) and greeted the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 with derision.

The leaders of the students’ body had a meeting with lawyers of the State on Monday on the controversial Bill. The meeting got its message across the government at the Centre that under no circumstances the people of Assam are going to let the Bill, which is set to spell disaster for Assam, get its passage. “The Bill, if passed, is going to spell doom for Assamese language, literature, culture and identity. We appeal to the State Government to take the side of the people of Assam on the Bill,” meeting resolved.

The meeting has also appealed to the government to set a specific timeframe for the implementation of various clauses of the Assam Accord, besides providing constitutional safeguards to the indigenous people of the State based on the Assam Accord and sealing the international border with Bangladesh on a war footing. The meeting also raised the demand for signing a bilateral agreement between India and Bangladesh for the deportation of Bangladeshis from the State. The meeting has also raised the demand for holding hearing on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill all over Assam by the JPC.

Expressing faith on the Supreme Court’s supervision on NRC update, the meeting feels that the apex court will continue to supervise the NRC update process till its completion. It has also appealed to all officials engaged in NRC update work to do the job with more sincerity by taking it as a national responsibility they have been entrusted with. It has appealed to the officials to ensure that no name of Bangladeshi makes it to the NRC.