By Bhupen Goswami
Guwahati : The Assam Government is pushing for ‘re-verification’ before publishing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) because of some rather surprising data which was recently produced by Minister Chandramohan Patowary in Guwahati. There was hue-and-cry in the Assam Assembly when BJP legislator Debananda Hazarika cast his doubts over the NRC. “A fair NRC will be like the Magna Carta but a flawed one would threaten the integrity and sovereignty of the country,” he had said.
Hazarika’s sentiment was echoed by Minister Chandramohan Patowary , who said that many people in tribal areas have been excluded, whereas Bangladesh-bordering areas have seen a high percentage of their population included in the NRC.
“In the indigenous and tribal-dominated districts such as Karbi Anglong, West Karbi Anglong, Baksa and Sonitpur, 14-15% people have been excluded. Likewise, 22% people in Bongaigaon and 18% in Guwahati have been excluded”, he said, casting doubts over the accuracy of the NRC. Patowary 90% of the names in four districts bordering Bangladesh had been included, while many have been excluded in districts dominated by indigenous people. The data said 91.78%, 92.33%, 91.96% and 92.78% people in Muslim-dominated Dhubri, Karimganj, Hailakandi and South Salmara districts have been included in the NRC.Another legislator, Hojai MLA Shiladitya Dev, claimed that NRC co-ordinator is including Bangladeshi nationals in the NRC and added that Hajela’s ‘one-man show’ must end.
The Assam NRC Co-ordinator has also come under fire from the administration for using 50,000 State Govt employees and spending Rs. 12,000 of taxpayers’ money to make an NRC list which still leaves “room for doubt”, as per the Assam administration and Patowary.
It may be mentioned that the Assam administration has been pushing for re-verification of the applications for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in light of these latest revelations. Under the Supreme Court’s directions, the first draft of the NRC was published on December 31, 2017 and the final draft on July 30, last year where 40 lakh odd people were left out.On August 16, 2018, the Supreme Court had asked court-mandated coordinator Prateek Hajela to file “in a sealed cover, the percentage of the population in each district (district-wise) who have been left out of the final draft NRCThe Supreme Court on July 23 extended the deadline for publication of final NRC by a month to August 31.Assam, which had faced influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC which was first prepared in 1951.
