Dispur legislator Atul Bora on Thursday has written to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela stated that the ‘troublesome’ claims and objection process cannot ensure a fair updated National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Bora further requested both Gogoi and Hajela not to burden the people of Assam with the onus of removing the names of illegal foreigners from the NRC.
In the letter, Bora further stated that the people were finding it tough to file objections to the inclusion of lakhs of ‘illegal foreign infiltrators’ in the draft NRC ‘with the help of forged documents and through fraudulent means’ and that the NRC authorities must remove these names through verification.
Notably, on Wednesday, the apex court had extended the last date for submitting of claims and objections to the final draft NRC till December 31 from December 15.
“All citizens, whose names have not been included in the draft, can be included in due course. It is not a big problem. The main problem is to find out and exclude the names of foreign infiltrators. I was under the impression that Prateek Hajela has been very thorough in preparing a correct NRC for Assam. My hopes were belied when it became known that lakhs of illegal foreign infiltrators from Bangladesh have entered their names in the NRC with the help of forged documents and through fraudulent means. The NRC authorities must remove the names of these illegal infiltrators from the draft and new names of foreign infiltrators are not to be allowed for inclusion. However, this burden should not be left to the people of Assam. Expecting the people to file objections against inclusion of the names of foreign infiltrators will be too much. It will not be possible,” Bora wrote to the Chief Justice and State NRC coordinator.
“When the NRC authority itself has admitted that there were serious errors in the draft, then why the public are made to go through the exercise of claims and objections? “ he questioned.
“A similar situation had arisen during the height of the Assam Movement when the main demands were the three Ds — detection, deletion and deportation. People then were expected to file objections in form 7 (under Registration of Electors Rule, 1980) against inclusion of names in the electoral rolls of Assam to get them deleted. It was impossible to do so because village after village was grabbed by infiltrators from Bangladesh and no one could be found in those areas to file objections,” Bora wrote.
The situation is the same now and only around 250 objections have been filed so far, he added.
