GUWAHATI: The updating of the National Register of Citizens to count nationals and illegal foreigners living in the state plunged into a crisis after a government school teacher who was involved in the preparation of the final draft in
Morigaon district is found to have been declared as a non-national by a foreigner tribunal two years back.
Earlier in August 2, at least 200 people from 39 families in the same district, which is one of Assam’s 11 Muslim-majority districts, who had earlier either been declared foreigners or their cases are pending with different Foreigners’ Tribunals were found to have made it to the final draft. The
NRC authorities have immediately taken off their names and have been marked as ‘put on hold’ till the courts cleared their names.
More than 55,000 people drawn from various government departments, majority being government school teachers, are engaged in the NRC exercise and after the Morigaon incident, questions are now being asked whether the nationality of these persons were verified before engaging them.
BJP legislator from Hojai, Siladitya said, “This Morigaon case is just one instance and a tip of the iceberg. I have ben telling this for long time that there are more non-nationals and voters working with the NRC updating process.”
Morigaon district deputy commissioner Hemen Das on receiving a complaint from some villagers that Mohammad Khairul Islam, who was attached to NRC Seva Kendra at Mikirbheta was a declared foreigner, has relieved him of his duties.
“Islam wasn’t doing any work at a decision-taking level. He was only assisting and after I came to know about him, he has been relieved immediately. We are re-verifying every document that might have passed through his hands,” Das said.
Islam told TOI that he was declared a foreigner by the Foreigners’ Tribunal of Morigaon in 2016. “I am currently on bail because I have challenged the tribunal verdict in Gauhati High Court. The case there is pending.”
The Morigaon DC said that he asked for a list of school teachers from the district school inspectors who could be engaged in the exercise. “The list would not contain their other details, like their nationality or their pending cases. This teacher should have declared about is case when we engaged him.”
Islam, a teacher of Thengsali Khanda Pukhuri LP School in Morigaon district, said that he joined the NRC work in December last year before the first draft was published.
