From Our Special Correspondent
GUWAHATI: Sachetan Nagarik Mancha, Axom, a Guwahati-based citizen’s group has submitted a memorandum to Union Home Minister Amit Shah requesting for a CBI probe into the alleged ‘misuse and trading’ of legacy data during the update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
In a statement issued on Saturday, the group alleged that the NRC update process was based on a “vulnerable mechanism of legacy data” and, therefore, sought the intervention of the home minister in this regard.
“We have reports from different parts of Assam that there have been rampant misuse/trading of legacy data by Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants. As there is strong suspicion of criminality in trading of legacy data and no mechanism available to the NRC state coordinator to cross-check this, the same should be immediately investigated by an independent agency like the CBI. Otherwise, publication of the final draft will only ensure legitimacy to such immigrants,” the Mancha’s general secretary, Atul Barman, said.
The group also staged a two-hour sit-in demonstration at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, on Saturday demanding publication of an error-free NRC in Assam.
The Supreme Court had allowed the NRC authorities in Assam a month’s extension to publish the final register by August 31, 2019.
The NGO, which claimed to have been actively involved in the NRC update process since 2015, said it had tried to ensure that no indigenous citizen of Assam was excluded from NRC while at the same time no foreigner was included in the draft.
The Mancha claimed to have evidence that about 10,000 people have been included in the complete draft NRC (published last year) without submission of any legacy data while about 68,000 persons, who have submitted just one legacy data (family), find their names in the draft.
It had demanded 10 per cent sample re-verification of the persons included in the draft NRC which, however, was not considered by the apex court following submission of reports by the state NRC coordinator.