From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Nepali-speaking Gorkha community in Assam is peeved at some of the members of the community being branded illegal migrants and some being marked ‘D’ (doubtful) voters.
The All Assam Gorkha Students’ Union (AAGSU) alleged that of late incidents of marking Gorkhas in Assam as ‘D’ voters or suspecting them as illegal migrants had been on the rise and demanded immediate intervention of the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh through a memorandum.
Copies of the memorandum were marked to Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Smti Sushma Swaraj, Chief Election Commissioner and Assam, Accord Implementation Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and all DCs of the state.
Citing an instance, the AAGSU stated that recently a genuine Indian citizen, a resident of Tezalpati under Sootea police station in Sonitpur district Indra Bahadur Rai was served with a notice branding him as illegal Bangladeshi.
The AAGSU publicity secretary Nanda Kirati Dewan said, “The ‘D’ voters cases amongst the Gorkha community have gone abruptly high over the years and the genuine Indians have been harassed in the subject of proving their nationality time and again which is in bad vibe and is being operated by a organized group of police, politicians and corrupt officials who demand cash for removing the ‘D’ from the victim’s name in the voters list. We condemn all such incident in the toughest of words.”
He said Gorkhas had settled in Assam over two hundred years and such actions from the government were uncalled for.
The AAGSU threatened an intensive agitation throughout Assam if the issue was not addressed at the earliest.
