GUWAHATI: The Assam home department has assured the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha (BGP) to look into the matter of implementing the Union home ministry’s notification clarifying that Gorkha D-voters (doubtful voters) could not be tried in foreigners’ tribunals.
According to the Parisangha, more than 20,000 Gorkha D-voters and their descendants have been excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which was recently released in Assam, taking the approximate number of people not featuring in the final list to above one lakh.
A delegation of the Parisangha’s Assam state committee led by its president Nityananda Upadhyay, had called on Ashutosh Agnihotri, state commissioner and secretary, (home) requesting the government to file a fresh case at the foreigners division of Gauhati High Court while hearing Case No. I.A. (Civil) 4322/2018 and give relief to the Gorkha D-voters excluded from NRC.
“We had an elaborate discussion regarding the order filed by the state home department. The commissioner and secretary (home) has taken responsibility to see why it was necessary to file a writ petition in the high court to validate the notification by MHA (issued last year) and if at all it is necessary why it was not filed on time,” Assam BGP general secretary, S. Prakash Dahal, who was part of the delegation, said.
“If it is necessary to file a fresh writ petition, the government will seek legal opinion from the concerned department and follow the process and settle the issue on time,” he said.
The Parisangha said that with the representation, “it puts it on record requesting the government of Assam to do the needful as advised within the stipulated time of 120 days and relieve the Gorkha D-voters from being dragged to foreigners’ tribunals”.