BJP state president Ranjeet Kumar Dass calls citizenship list a 'waste paper'

GUWAHATI: BJP state president Ranjeet Kumar Dass on Wednesday called the National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on August 31 a "waste paper".
His remarks come days after Tarun Gogoi, during whose tenure the NRC updating process had started, had also called it a "waste paper". Gogoi had said that the BJP governments at Centre and state have failed to bring out an "error-free" NRC as many genuine Indians were left out while foreigners have been included in the NRC. "The final NRC, instead of solving the problem of foreigners, will create more problems as many genuine Indians have been left out," Gogoi had said.
Dass, reiterating Gogoi's claims, said the NRC has lost its value as it failed to identify the foreigners correctly. "The intention with which the process began was genuine. However, as the final NRC excluded many genuine Indians, we cannot help but call it a waste paper. We fear that foreigners have got in the citizenship register as there were many instances of legacy data theft," Dass said. BJP had been demanding re-verification of the list before its release so that illegal migrants could be removed from it
Meanwhile, Assam assembly speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami said that a 100% error-free NRC was not possible given the magnitude of the exercise. "There maybe dissatisfaction among many but it is not possible to have a 100% correct list. We should accept that we have finally got the register after more than three decades of waiting," Goswami said.
Goswami added that the humanitarian aspect also has to be taken into consideration and those excluded cannot be thrown out immediately. "I am happy that there is no incident of violence. This shows how mature people of Assam are," Goswami said.
The final NRC was released on August 31 with a total of 3,11,21,004 persons included while 19,06,657 were left out including those who did not submit claims.