In a significant development the Assam government on Friday has asked the Border Police not to issue ‘D’ voter notice to anybody during the process of updating the National Register of Citizens in the state. The decision was taken during an all party meet at the chamber of the Assam Assembly Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami in Guwahati.
The government has also decided to include the names of those who have already proved their identity as Indians in the electoral rolls.
Talking to Northeast Now, leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia, who had participated in the all party meeting, said, “The all party meet was convened as our legislator Sherman Ali had raised the issue of ‘D’ voter during a debate in the Assembly. The government has agreed to stop issuing ‘D’ voter notice during the updating process of NRC.”
Saikia further informed that the government had initiated steps to include names of those ‘D’ voters who had proved their identity as Indians in the court.
“There are around 4.5 lakh ‘D’ voters and maximum of them have proved their identities as Indians. The home department has written a letter to the state election officer in this regard. The State Election Department has sought the list of those whose names have been cleared by the court from the government,” Saikia added.
The meeting also discussed the matter of taking care of the inmates of the detention camps on humanitarian ground.
Leaders of all the political parties besides Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary were present in the meeting.