Assam CM Has Assured All-Party Meet on NRC-Excluded People Soon: CPI(M)

Guwahati: The opposition Communist Party of Indian (Marxist) on Thursday claimed that the Assam government would convene an all-party meeting to discuss the fate of the people, who would be left out of the final version of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to be released next month.

After hearing the party's demand in this regard, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal decided to call the meeting soon, CPI(M) Central Committee Member Suprakash Talukdar told a press conference here.

"A CPI(M) delegation met the chief minister on Wednesday evening and submitted a memorandum on various burning issues impacting the state. He assured us to call a meeting of all political parties and groups in the next few days to take suggestions on the fate of the people, who will be excluded from the final NRC," Talukdar told reporters.

The NRC is being updated under the supervision of the Supreme Court and July 31 is the deadline to publish the contentious document, being described as the list of genuine Indian citizens living in Assam.

Altogether 2.9 crore people were found to be eligible for inclusion in the complete draft of the NRC, which was published on July 30 last year, out of a total 3.3 crore applicants, thereby excluding the names of 40.08 lakh people.

The CPI(M) delegation also raised the issue of falsely declaring genuine Indian citizens as foreigners by the Foreigners Tribunal (FT) and putting them in the detention camps, Talukdar said.

"From the Sanaullah case, it became clear that the Assam Border Police and the FTs are not functioning in a fair manner. So, we demanded that the government itself check the documents of the people lodged in the detention camps and release immediately if detained falsely," he added.

Ex- Armyman Md Sanaullah, who was serving as a Sub-Inspector in Assam Border Police, had been put in a detention camp on being declared as a foreigner by the FT. He was later granted bail by the Gauhati High Court on June 7 and released from the camp the next day.

Separate FIRs were filed against retired Sub Inspector Chandramal Das of the Assam Border Police by three persons whose names appeared as witnesses in the statement. However, they said they were not called during verification and they had not signed on any document as witnesses.

The CPI(M) also demanded revision of the 'D' (doubtful) voters list and exclude the names of those people who can show proper documents.

During the run up to the Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission said around 1.2 lakh people of Assam would not be able to vote as they had been marked as 'D' voters.

The concept of 'D' voters was introduced in 1997. The EC has prepared a list containing names of people who allegedly failed to provide evidence in favour of their Indian nationality.

Such a list does not exist anywhere else in India.

On the two defunct paper mills of PSU firm Hindustan Paper Corp in Assam, the CPI(M) asked the government to release the pending salaries of the employees, provide them free food and take responsibility of the education of their children till the factories are reopened.

"We are happy that the chief minister immediately asked his principal secretary to take necessary steps for providing food items free of cost and taking responsibility of the children's education," Talukdar claimed.