TCN News
The NRC officials have apparently not paid any heed to the orders of the Supreme Court that directed them, “steps should be taken to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to the persons required to attend the hearing and to see that they are not required to travel long distances, if possible“.
But this is what is being done instead: People are receiving notices to appear for the hearing to prove their citizenship, in a short span of time to a place that is at least 300 to 500 kms away from their village.
And this has proven to be too expensive for the poor people of Assam, mainly Muslims, who sold off their valuables and even lands to desperately fund the money to appear before the NRC office.
They boarded buses, hired vehicles, traveled by pick up vans and other vehicles that were at their disposal to be able to reach on time for the re-verification process.
This has also resulted in 3 road accidents when buses carrying the passengers to Upper Assam met with an accident.
A bus from suntoli village of Hajo overturned in which 24 persons including 2 small children, seriously injured were hospitalized on August 4. And some people who despite being injured were more worried about the documents they were carrying than themselves.
And within 24 hours another bus returning with passengers after NRC hearing met with an accident at Sonapur , a few kilometers from Gauhati, met with an accident injuring 7 persons.
And the third occurred yesterday, in the wee hours of Wednesday, a mini- bus carrying around 50 passengers for the NRC hearing met with an accident at Gobardhan, Chaygaon. Two sisters, Joymun Nissa and Arzina Begum died. Arzina Begum was a 14 year old school girl who was studying in class 8.
Apart from the road mishaps, two others Rejia Khatun, 68 years and Hanif Ali, 65 years have died due to their ill health and the extreme climate. While many people fainted due to the exhaustion of long travel, the heat, lack of water and food.
The seva kendras for NRC hearing were earlier located close by within accessible distance but this time the centers are located far away and the time duration provided to the people has been short.
The social workers and activists who are involved in helping these grief stricken people say that due to the short notice people hired vehicles that were not in good shape and that could have resulted in the accidents.