The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) on Sunday alleged genuine Indian citizens are being harassed in the name of the updating process of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
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In this regard, a delegation of Assam Congress Legislature Party on Sunday submitted a memorandum to Prateek Hajela, the state coordinator of NRC alleging undue harassment has been faced by several people across the State, particularly religious and linguistic minorities in the process of hearing of claims and objections.
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The NRC authorities in the State had started hearing objections raised regarding some of the citizens since last week. While the people against whom objections have been raised appeared at the respective venues, objectors failed to turn up, raising questions about authenticity of the objection process.
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Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia alleged that people were being called to faraway places for hearing of claims and objections, causing mental, physical and financial harassment.
The Supreme Court in its April 4, 2019 order had requested the state coordinator to ensure that at the time of hearing of claims, steps be taken to prevent any inconvenience to the persons required to attend the hearing and that they were not required to travel long distances, he said.
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He further added the objectors were neither attending hearings, nor disclosing their identities.
Saikia also said there are reports about certain forces with vested interests filing bulk complaints simply to harass innocent people on the basis of religious and linguistic identity.