Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: A team of the State Congress Legislature Party (CLP) left for New Delhi to the meet the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on the latest developments that took place on the NRC front in Assam. Besides meeting the President of India, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Home Affairs, the team led by CLP leader Debadrata Saikia is supposed to meet a number of Congress MPs on the issue.
Before leaving for New Delhi, Saikia, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, dashed a letter each to the State Chief Secretary and the DGP seeking conveyance and security for people to attend NRC hearings in the State.
In his letter to the Chief Secretary, Saikia said: “I would like to inform you that thousands of people from several Lower Assam areas such as Barpeta, Goalpara, Chenga, Boko, Chaygaon etc., have been summoned to certain far-off upper Assam districts, including Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji etc., to attend NRC-related hearings on different dates
between August 5 and August 7, 2019. The relevant notices were issued as late as August 3 and 4, 2019. First of all, it is difficult to fathom as to why these people have been summoned virtually from one end of Assam to another even though the NRC process is digitized and consequently the necessary procedure could have been carried out in the nearest district, if not the nearest NRC centre. Secondly, in some districts as many as 25,000 people have been issued summonses in a single panchayat area. Neither the existing level of train service nor bus service will be able to transport so many people so far within, in many cases, 24 hours. Thirdly, the latest and sudden exercise of apparent re-verification is bewildering because the Hon’ble Supreme Court categorically stated less than a fortnight ago that there was no need for re-verification even on a limited scale because 27% re-verification has already been carried out by the NRC Authority.”
This apart, the CLP leader said, in view of persistent attempts by some political leaders to project a specific section of people as foreigners on the basis of suspicion only, there is a possibility that these people might be branded as illegal migrants and attacked by nefarious elements after they arrive in Upper Assam to attend the NRC hearings. “Therefore, I request you kindly to ensure two things on behalf of the state government – that those who cannot attend hearings due on the date allotted to them due to obvious logistical difficulties are allowed to attend hearings on the subsequent date/dates with August 7 being the final deadline; and that the administration of the relevant districts are instructed to enforce special security measures to protect the people in question. These two steps will prevent undue harassment and deprivation of legitimate claimants and further preclude any untoward incident which may have the potential to spiral out of control and lead to a graver law-and-order situation.”
Citing similar issues in another letter, the Leader of Opposition requested the DGP to instruct police officials in Upper Assam districts to enforce special security measures to protect the people from lower Assam districts who have gone to upper Assam for NRC hearing so as to prevent any untoward incident. In yet another letter to State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela, the CLP requested him to provide conveyance and security nor NRC hearing.