'Arbitrary act on NRC' rocks Silchar

Our Correspondent

Silchar: A huge torch rally organized by the Unconditional Citizenship Demand Forum (UCDF), Silchar, rocked the town on Tuesday night.

The exclusion of 40 lakh people from the second draft NRC list which was published on July 30, 2018 has left people in the lurch. The first spark of protest was seen in the huge torch rally in which a large number of apolitical and socio-cultural organizations took an active part. The rally, starting from Rangirkhari point moved across the town before converging before the statue of Khudiram Bose at Park road in Silchar, was taken out against the decision to drop five documents from the list of 15 documents.

A strong demand was raised to keep all 15 documents valid. These documents were originally named for verification of citizenship by the authorities. Kamal Chakraborty of UCDF said that the miserable condition of the people is unbearable. Advocate Santanu Naik on behalf of NELECC said NELECC would stand by the people in the times of adversity and hour of crisis. He said NELECC would soon file a PIL in the Supreme Court. Slogans were raised against both Prateek Hajela, NRC state coordinator, and Amit Shah, BJP president, BJP. Amit Shah using words like 'termites' for those whose names did not feature in the second draft has hurt people.

The protesters strongly demanded for removal of Prateek Hajela as the NRC state coordinator. More than 35 organizations took an active part in the rally which includes Barak Upatyaka Banga Sahitya O Sanskriti Sammelan (BUBSOSS), Citizens Rights Preservation Coordination Committee (CRPCC), International Human Rights Association (IHRA), Rani Rasmoni Smriti Mancha (RRSM), Udayer Pathe, Assam College Teachers' Association (ACTA), Cachar, All Bengali Youth and Students' Association (ABYSA), All Assam Bengali Hindu Association (AABHA), Youth Against Social Evils (YASE) among others as well as general people of this town. Similarly, a rally was also taken out in Karimganj district.