NELECC to meet Governor, CM

A Correspondent

Silchar, July 7: The delegation of North East Linguistic and Ethnic Coordination Committee (NELECC) has been campaigning for early passage of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 in the Parliament and against the indiscriminate harassment of Indian citizens merely on ground of suspicion and branding them as ‘D’ voters. Leaders and members of NELECC which returned from New Delhi after meeting Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs General VK Singh, eminent lawyer and BJP MP Subramanian Swamy as well as Ram Madhav, All India General Secretary of BJP and S Lakshmanan, IAS, Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, briefed media-persons at a press-meet held at Hasi Khushi Community Hall of this town on Saturday.

Atin Das, poet, senior journalist, who is also one of the advisors of NELECC said, “We are expecting a fruitful outcome from these meetings. NELECC was formed on June 3 last on the strength of resolutions taken at a meeting which was held on the same day”. Advocate Santanu Naik, advisor, NELECC, related how NELECC pleaded for the implementation of the Centre’s Notification of 2015 for giving shelter and protection to the refugees who migrated from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), Afghanistan and Pakistan. NELECC representatives have apprised of the developments following their talks in Delhi, covering the wide ranging aspects of NRC, Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, detention camp, mental and physical harassment of the ‘D’ voters and the applicants for enrollment of their names in the draft list.

“The Home Minister was shocked and taken aback when he learnt about the detention camps. We have been assured that a team is likely to visit all the detention camps of Assam”, Santanu Naik added to say. Subhranshu Shekhar Bhattacharjee, advisor, NELECC said, “We have asked the Deputy Commissioner of Ccahar to take steps to make way for us to visit the detention camps. We have been asked to submit a report at it at New Delhi. The inmates of detention camps are passing days in extremely bad and pathetic condition. They should not be treated as criminals.”

Kankan Narayan Sikidar, general secretary, NELECC, read out the 3 page press-release which states that NELECC has plans to meet the Chief Minister, the Governor, of Assam and Himanta Biswa Sarma. They have also requested the district and police administration of Cachar to keep a strong vigil across Barak Valley. NELECC has constituted legal cells in all the three districts of Barak Valley to address the apprehensions of the people during the phase of ‘Claims and Objections’ post publication of NRC draft list. They have plans to start a signature campaign regarding the Bill. Among others present at the press-meet included Bibhas Deb, working president, NELECC, renowned surgeon Dr Kumar Kanti Das and educationist Sankar Bhattacharjee.