GUWAHATI: The All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) has moved the National Register of Citizens (NRC) state coordinator in regard to a recent notification on acceptance of legacy linkage documents “issued” prior to August 2015.
“We have submitted a memorandum to NRC state coordinator, Prateek Hajela, stating that the authenticity of the certificates prior to August 15 (needed for establishing linkage) should be verified from the government records as against the issue date of the document. Otherwise, it will create problems for a person, for example, appearing in his/her HSLC exam prior to 2015 but having the certificate issued to him/her after August 2015,” Rejaul Karim Sarkar, the president of AAMSU, told The Shillong Times on Sunday.
Expressing satisfaction over Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow claimants to rely on five more documents earlier objected to by the NRC coordinator, Sarkar said, “We are happy with the apex court’s decision and the process of claims and objections is currently going on smoothly.”
The apex court has also extended the deadline for filing claims and objections of people whose names were not included in the complete draft NRC to December 15, 2018.
The five documents that were earlier objected to by Hajela are the NRC of 1951, voter list of 1966, voter list of 1971, refugee registration certificate till 1971 and ration card issued till 1971.
The NRC coordinator had cited instances of how the additional five documents could be forged and misused to get illegal migrants into NRC. The concerns were however rejected by a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
The complete draft NRC was published on July 30 this year with 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants included in it The citizens register will include the names of all Indian citizens who have been residing in Assam before March 25, 1971.
Rally against Citizenship Bill
The students union, meanwhile, took part in the mass agitation, “Sankalpa Sikha Jatra” along with several organizations in the state who are undertaking to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 proposed by the Centre.
Hundreds of AAMSU members took part in the bike rally on Sunday traversing 150km from Dhubri to Chirang. After a night halt in Chirang the activists will proceed to Barpeta on Monday.
“We are opposed to this Bill, which if passed, will adversely affect the indigenous people of Assam, their language, culture among others. More than anything else, we want to know the stand taken by chief minister on the Bill. If the Meghalaya chief minister can take a definite stand against the proposed legislation, we see no reason why the Assam chief minister cannot do the same,” Sarkar said.
Around 70 organisations are taking part in the statewide mass protest against the Bill.
The Citizenship Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955. The Bill amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship.
