Plea to revive NRC projects

Guwahati, Aug 1 : Twenty-five organisations of the state today submitted a memorandum to Assam Governor J.B. Patnaik seeking immediate resumption of the pilot projects to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the Barpeta and Chaygaon revenue circles.

These organisations include the All Assam Students’ Union, All Assam Tribal Sangha, All Bodo Students’ Union, All Rabha Students Union, All Tai Ahom Students’ Union, All Dimasa Students Union, All Koch-Rajbongshi Students’ Union, All Tiwa Students’ Union, All Assam Matak Yuba-Chattra Samilan, All Assam Maran Students’ Union, All Assam Deuri Students’ Union, Karbi Students Union, All Assam Tea Tribes’ Students’ Association and All Assam Gorkha Students’ Union, among others.

A 30-member delegation of the organisations called on the governor and submitted the memorandum, demanding that the pilot projects should not be stopped under any circumstances.

It also demanded that the scheme to prepare the NRC should be extended to the whole of Assam at the earliest.

“There is no flaw in the application, which has to be filled up for inclusion of names in the NRC. The government of Assam should make elaborate arrangements to publicise the procedure in simple language so that the interested communal parties and groups cannot take advantage for false propaganda,” the memorandum said.

AASU adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharyya threatened to launch a massive agitation if the government failed to resume the update at the earliest.

“The government must not allow any attempt to communalise the issue,” he said.

He said representatives of the 25 organisations met here yesterday and discussed the situation arising out of the violent activities of the All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU), aimed at obstructing the pilot projects.

Bhattacharyya said they would travel to Delhi soon to submit a separate memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P. Chidambaram in this regard.

“The organisations feel that the state government has unduly interfered in the preparation of the NRC, bowing to the pressure of some communal organisations which consistently opposed the objective of the Assam Movement,” Bhattacharyya said.

In the memorandum, they also demanded an immediate halt to the construction of the big dam at Subansiri and to declare the flood and erosion problems of Assam as the national problem of the country.

In a related incident, MP and All India United Democratic Front president Maulana Badruddin Ajmal on Saturday met Bhumidhar Barman, who has taken over charge of the state in the absence of chief minister Tarun Gogoi.

Sources said Ajmal, while asserting that his party would support the government in bringing peace to the state, said the process of updating National Register of Citizens 1951 should be resumed at an early date by clearing the alleged doubts and discrepancies in the application forms.

Though there is speculation about the possible political ramifications of the meeting, AIUDF spokeperson Haidar Ali Bora said it was purely a “courtesy call”.