Assam expects ‘good news’ soon
NEW DELHI: With Union Home Minister Amit Shah hinting at good news for the North East, talks on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act are likely to resume with the tribal parties of the region.
Shah is likely to meet leaders of tribal-based parties of Northeastern states, including the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ally, the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) over the CAA on Friday.
The IPFT, which resumed anti-CAA stir after a month, continues its sit-in at district council headquarters.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma had said he would lead a delegation of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) to meet Shah and urge him to promulgate the inner line permit (ILP) in the state. Sangma is camping in Delhi but the time for the meeting is yet to be fixed, home ministry sources said.
Leaders of Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) and other tribal leaders are camping in Delhi for talks. The tribal-based parties in Tripura have been demanding that the state be kept out of the CAA’s ambit. Incidentally, the Tripura Rajya Upajati Ganamukti Parishad (TRUGP), tribal front of opposition CPI-M, has also been demanding that NE states be kept out the CAA’s purview.
Three months to apply in Assam
The Centre may give a relatively smaller window of just three months to those who want to apply for Indian citizenship in Assam under the CAA, officials said on Thursday.
Some Assam specific provisions are expected to be incorporated in the rules to be issued for the implementation of the CAA. There is a possibility of giving a smaller window of just three months for those living in Assam to apply under the CAA, an official, privy to the development, said.
The move came in view of the continuing protests against the CAA in Assam where protests have been going on since the legislation was passed by Parliament in December. The CAA rules are expected to be issued in next two weeks, the official said. Asked about the protests in Assam against the CAA, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters at an event here on Thursday: “Wait for some time. Some good news is coming”.
Another official said, an applicant will have to prove that he or she was a victim of religious persecution besides proving that he or she has entered India before the cut-off date of December 31, 2014.
The Assam specific provisions in the CAA rules are expected as the state has been witnessing widespread protests against the CAA. There has been a growing feeling among the indigenous people of Assam that the newly-enacted legislation will hurt their interests politically, culturally as well as socially. The Assam Accord provides for detection and deportation of all illegal immigrants, who have entered the country after 1971 and are living in the state, irrespective of their religion. The protesters in Assam say that the CAA violates the provisions of the Assam Accord. (With PTI inputs)