NE minority students’ union stages sit-in over demands in Delhi

Guwahati, Sep 22: Members of the North-East Minorities Students Union (NEMSU) staged a two-hour long sit-in demonstration in New Delhi on Thursday over various demands, including provision of national identity cards to persons whose names have been included in the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) published in Assam three years back, and initiation of the appeals process for persons excluded from the citizen’s register.

The students union also submitted memoranda to the President, Prime Minister, the Union home ministry and the ministry of minority affairs in this regard, urging the authorities to also take necessary steps in a time-bound manner to unlock the biometric data of persons in Assam whose biometric data had been collected during the claims/objections phase of the preparation of the NRC.

The union claimed that as the biometric data of such persons were locked they were “unable to make their Aadhaar cards.”

The NEMSU members further requested the central authorities to restrain the Assam government from demolishing madrassas in the state, alleging that the recent instances of demolition of madrassas in Assam were in violation of the fundamental rights of minorities in the state.

The union also drew the attention of the central authorities in regard to the eviction of ‘landless people’ in the state.

“Right to shelter is a fundamental right of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution of India. The Assam government is evicting landless people without giving proper rehabilitation,” it alleged, while urging the authorities to direct the state government to rehabilitate the landless people already evicted and restrain it from further eviction without rehabilitating the landless people.