By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Guwahati: A facts finding team of All India Secular Forum (AISF) on the National Register of Citizen (NRC) update process submitted its report to the government and urged for an error free process.
The NRC is a document containing the names of Indian citizens in Assam prepared in 1951. Unique to the state of Assam, this document was prepared to distinguish Indian citizens from illegal migrants from then East Pakistan. The 1951 NRC certificate, along with the electoral roll in the voters’ list of 1966 and 1971 are the two important documents required to prove the citizenship in Assam, where propaganda about illegal Bangladeshi is rampant and often violent.
Irfan Engineer, director of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism addressing media in Guwahati on NRC issue.
The team headed by Irfan Engineer, director, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai – who is also one of the national conveners of AISF – visited several places of the state.
“What we have found is that everybody desperately wanted the update of the NRC. All section of the people with whom we have come across have welcomed the process. But they are facing certain problems, which we would like to highlight in front of the government agency responsible for it,” Engineer said on Tuesday.
Among others, some people could not find their data uploaded in the website in spite of having the relevant documents. There are less number of NRC Seva Kendra in some areas for which the people are facing trouble.
The Fact Finding team, which also comprised activists, social workers and scholars, will publish the detailed report of their findings so that an error free and flawless updating can be done.
“People were worried about discrepancies in name and age recorded in the NRC 1951 and other legacy data and the documents they possess. The Fact Finding team feels that during verification process testimony of the village or town elders should also be relied upon,” he said.
The team also found that the legacy data of Neille area in Morigaon district inhabited by Bengali Hindus and Patgaon Mokam of Kamrup (rural) have not been uploaded yet.
On the issue of the D-voter or the ‘Doubtful’ voters, the Fact Finding team said that given the arbitrary manner in which some citizens have been categorized as ‘D’ voters, why should they be required to approach two fora to prove their citizenship.
“If after verification ‘D’ voters become eligible for entry in NRC, in that case their cases lying in Foreigners Tribunals should stand disposed off,” said Hafiz Ahmed, president of Char Chapori Sahitya Parishad (CCSP) and one of the members of the Fact Finding team.
Shahiuz Zaman, assistant professor of SSP College of Sivasagar said that the team has visited Guwahati, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Dhubri, Goalpara, Morigaon, Baksa, Nagaon and Sivasagar.
The other members of the team are AISF Assam state convener Dilip Borah, Professor of Gauhati University Monirul Hussain and Susanda Madhab Baruah among others.
Now, they are planning to publish the detailed report so that the people of the country know the reality.
“Besides putting pressure on the government and the authorities concerned, it is also important to let the people of the country know what is going on here. We are hopeful that the process would be completed in a most disciplined and flawless way,” Engineer said.
Talking of the inmates of Hapasara relief camp situated in Bongaigaon district of Assam who have been living in these camps for more than two decades, the team members said that even these people are desperately wanting the process to be completed.
“Their lives are pathetic. One of the inmates told me that they are there like ‘corpse of dogs’. They are hopeful that the completion of the updated process will at least bring some respect to their lives,” Engineer added.
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