GUWAHATI: Independent candidate for Guwahati Lok Sabha constituency, Upamanyu Hazarika has called for constitution of an independent committee along with field verification of the National Register of Citizens so that declared foreigners’ names are not found in the NRC or electoral rolls.
Hazarika, a Supreme Court lawyer, said that the committee should be headed by a retired judge of the apex court while the verification has to be done by officials from other states as many local ground level officials trace their origins in Bangladesh and might have affinity towards those people.
“These steps are crucial to save indigenous people from becoming minority in Assam and also to ensure their survival in future,” he told reporters here on Tuesday.
“It is a matter of great shame for the people of Assam and citizens of India that 70,000 declared foreigners have gone missing. Their names are found in the NRC as well as electoral rolls. Political parties including the government are seeking relaxation of norms to include all those left out from the NRC. They have made the entire NRC process a farce,” Hazarika, who is also the convenor of Prabhajan Virodhi Manch, an anti-influx body, said.
“There are multiple recent instances of declared foreigners having found their names in the electoral rolls and in spite of having filed a 16-page submission pointing out glaring discrepancies in the NRC on August 26, 2018 and the Supreme Court having directed sample re-verification of 10 per cent NRC draft inclusions, the government has taken no steps,” he said.
Hazarika further said that the last four years of the NRC process had amply proved that all our political parties and leaders in power and out of power were only too ready betray the indigenous cause.