'Citizenship (Amendment) Bill highly inimical to indigenous people of Assam' - Lakhimpur Citizens' Forum

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: Amidst festive environment, the Citizens' Forum, Lakhimpur, registered a strong protest against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. Opposing the controversial Bill, several hundreds of Lakhimpur citizens under the auspices of the Forum assembled at Tyag Kshetra of North Lakhimpur town and organized a protest meeting at 9.30 am on January 14.

They took out a rally to the Lakhimpur DC Office and submitted a memorandum to the President of India through the DC of the district. In the memorandum, Citizens' Forum, Lakhimpur termed the amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955 to be highly inimical to the indigenous people of Assam and federal structure of the State.

"At the moment, based on Assam Accord, at the intervention of the Supreme Court and on the instruction of the Central government, the Government of Assam is engaged in intensive updating of National Register of Citizens to include the people permanently residing in the State till March 24, 1971 and to treat them as genuine citizens of the country. The present attempt of the Central Government's to extend citizenship to any alien beyond the cut off date is not acceptable to the people of Assam. The State is already overburdened with high influx of foreign nationals of Bangladesh," stated the memorandum. So, Citizens' Forum, Lakhimpur requested the President of India to scrap the Bill.

Also read: Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016: AASU and 28 ethnic bodies to protest on Thursday