STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: “The Assam Government has never accepted the NRC in the State. We even approached Union Home Minister Amit Shah to reject the entire NRC exercise. The reason is that there were lacunae in the manner the NRC exercise had been conducted. For instance, names of people have been included which have doubtful citizenship whereas names of many genuine citizens of the country have been left out of the NRC in Assam,” stated Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma while addressing the media here on Wednesday.
Minister Sarma further stated, “Our consistent stand is that NRC must be at the national level. This is simply because there is no logic in having NRC on a State-wise basis.”
Pertaining to the cut-off year for carrying out the NRC exercise in general, Sarma pointed out, “The issue of cut-off year is significant to weed out the illegal foreigners. The moot point is, however, that there must be one cut-off year for the NRC and it should apply across the nation. Be it 1951 or 1971, the cut-off year must be one for the country.”
Regarding the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), Sarma said, “We believe that Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah will not do anything that might go against the interest of the people of Assam.”
On the agitations being carried out against the CAB in Assam, Minister Sarma commented, “It seems that only a section of the media and some groups of people are concerned about CAB. The public in general is hardly bothered about it. Had the public been concerned, the overall results of the Lok Sabha, bye-election and the panchayats would have been rather different. The result proves who is right.”
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