GUWAHATI: The All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) has termed the pleas by Centre, Assam government and some organisations for sample re-verification of names in the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) as a “conspiracy to derail the process to finalise the citizens register”.
The Centre and Assam government had on Friday sought from the Supreme Court extension of the July 31, 2019 deadline for finalisation of the NRC, apprehending wrongful inclusions and exclusions of names in the draft.
Both the governments have sought 20 per cent sample re-verification of names included in the draft NRC be conducted in districts bordering Bangladesh and a 10 per cent sample re-verification in the remaining districts of Assam.
AAMSU advisor, Azizur Rahman in a statement issued here questioned the intent of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and state towards finalization of a correct NRC in Assam.
“The move by the governments and some organizations smacks of a conspiracy to keep politicizing and raising the foreigners issue even after publication of a correct NRC in the state,” Rahman alleged.
He recalled that the reports submitted by state NRC coordinator, Prateek Hajela before the apex court on July 10 and July 18, 2019, have suggested that re-verification was done during the disposal of claims in the NRC process.
“The reports say that while disposing of claims, 80 lakh names (27 per cent) have been re-verified and that there was no need to carry out a similar exercise again,” Rahman said.
The AAMSU advisor said that since the NRC update process had already gone through a systematic and thorough verification, and an additional draft exclusion list with 1,02,462 people, published last month, such re-verification would only subject people to physical, mental and financial harassment apart from wasting the court’s valuable time.
“We have faith in the Supreme Court’s monitoring of the NRC update process and hope that the apex court would ensure finalization of a fair and correct citizens’ register,” he said.
It may be mentioned that the apex court, which is monitoring the NRC update process in Assam, had taken note of the submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the state government.
The court thereafter fixed the applications of both the governments for deliberation on the issue on July 23, 2019.