Those Missed In Assam's Citizen Register Will Be Included, Says Rajnath Singh: 10 Facts

The first draft of the new NRC was published with 1.9 crore names - out of 3.29 crore applicants - at midnight on December 31

All India | Edited by Abhimanyu Bose | Updated: January 04, 2018 19:13 IST

EMAIL

PRINT

COMMENTS

Those Missed In Assam's Citizen Register Will Be Included, Says Rajnath Singh: 10 Facts

Rajnath Singh termed Saugata Roy's allegation of Bengalis being thrown out of Assam as "baseless"

New Delhi: Days after the first draft of the National Register of Citizens or NRC exercise in Assam was released, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said in parliament that nobody will be left out of the citizen's register. The Home Minister was responding to Trinamool Congress lawmaker Saugata Roy's allegation that Assam's Bengali population was not being registered. "This is a baseless allegation that they are trying to throw someone out. If someone's name has been missed, it will be included in the list," Rajnath Singh said.

Following are the latest developments in this story:

Raising the issue during zero hour, Saugata Roy had called the National Register of Citizens in Assam a "conspiracy to drive out the Bengali population".
His allegations echoed what his party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said yesterday. Speaking at a public meeting at Birbhum district, Ms Banerjee had criticized the NRC exercise and warned the BJP, "Don't play with fire".
"Bengalis are being threatened with eviction from Assam, being told your name not there on list," she had said.
The first draft of the new NRC was published with 1.9 crore names - out of 3.29 crore applicants - at midnight on December 31.
Included in the list is the self-styled commander-in-chief of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militant group Paresh Baruah - one of India's most-wanted. Among those not in the list are two parliamentarians - Radheshyam Biswas, a lawmaker from Karimganj and Badruddin Ajmal from Dhubri.
The union government maintained that there was still time for all other names which are at various stages of verification. According to the Home Ministry, lakhs of documents sent to other states for verification are yet to come back.
Many Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam, who have often been branded Bangladeshis, are also worried. "We came with a hope that we will be on the list and those who are Bangladeshis will be left out. We don't have full confidence whether we will make it to the second list," said Mohammad Aznur Ali.
But native communities in Assam see this as one step closer to driving illegal settlers out. "If they make a proper NRC, we will get a cleansed Assam," said Suren Bordoloi, a local resident, at Nellie which saw a huge massacre of settlers with Bangladeshi roots in 1983.
Migrants have long been accused of illegally entering the state from Bangladesh and taking land, causing tensions with local people and sporadic outbreaks of communal violence. The subject has been a hot-button issue that has also influenced the state's politics for decades.
Anyone living in Assam has been asked to prove that their forebears appeared either in the state's only previous register of citizens, compiled in 1951, or on any electoral roll published before March 1971 to be eligible for citizenship.

Comments

Close [X]

Those Missed In Assam's Citizen Register Will Be Included, Says Rajnath Singh: 10 Facts

The first draft of the new NRC was published with 1.9 crore names - out of 3.29 crore applicants - at midnight on December 31

Trending

Related