NEIEESNT expresses concern over left-outs of NRC second draft

Special Correspondent

Silchar: North East India Emarat – E – Shariah and Nadwatut Tameer (NEIEESNT) based at Badarpur in the district of Karimganj have expressed their serious concern at the way 40,07,707 names have been left out from the second draft of NRC published on July 30, 2018.

Names of hundreds of former law makers, freedom fighters and army men are among these left outs for which there is no plausible explanation from the seva kendras who feed the people with comments like ‘no reason’, ‘reason unknown’. It is a fact that the names of 2,89,83,677 applicants have been included as per the modality approved by the Centre, the state of Assam, AASU and different political parties and under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

But, the move of the state coordinator of NRC Prateek Hajela to exclude five of the fifteen documents in the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) before the Supreme Court is no doubt a matter of grave concern. It is difficult to understand what impelled the state coordinator to take such an undemocratic and unconstitutional decision which smacks of his arbitrary and whimsical way to deal with such a sensitive issue like NRC. It is really strange that for Prateek Hajela the NRC of 1951, voter list of pre 1971, refugee certificates, citizenship certificates and ration cards are not admissible documents.

It is also unbelievable how the documents, becoming eligible before July 30, 2018 on the strength of which the names of 2.89 crore have been included in the second draft, become ineligible for verification. To deny these documents is equal to frustrating the whole NRC process. For this kind of irresponsible acts of action, Hajela has no right to continue as the state coordinator. Both the organizations have demanded his removal. North East India Emarat – E – Shariah and Nadwatut Tameer have pointed out how every applicant has given an undertaking while filing up the application and submitting it to seva kendra in 2015 to the effect that in case of any misinformation given by him, he will be subjected to punitive measures under Citizenship Act of 1955.

Even after that, Prateek Hajela is alleging that legacy data has been dubiously used to claim citizenship. All the facts and relevant information about applicants are under the custody of Prateek Hajela. If there is any such specific allegation about the trade in legacy data or furnishing of wrong information, Hajela can easily initiate legal action against any applicant. To bring the entire process of NRC under the cloud of suspicion and to indulge in cheap politics is really unfortunate, feel the North East India Emarat – E – Shariah and Nadwatut Tameer. It is therefore strongly pleaded that the names of all genuine Indian citizens have to be included in the NRC and accordingly the SOP has to be prepared.

These views on the methodology adopted for the NRC update after publication of the second draft have been articulated before the media-persons at a press-meet held here recently by Maulanas Badrul Haque Amni, Yousuf Ali, Ataur Rahman Mazarbhuiya, Farid Uddin Ahmed Choudhury, Fazrul Rahman Laskar, Naim Uddin Choudhury and Hussain Ahmed Majumder belonging to North East India Emarat – E – Shariah and Nadwatut Tameer.