A Correspondent
DHUBRI: BJP State vice-president Vijay Gupta, who has been on a two-day visit to Dhubri district to take stock of membership drive of the party and to interact with the people whose names did not figure in the final list of NRC published on August 31, addressed media persons here at Circuit House on Saturday.
While talking to the media persons, Gupta expressed deep resentment over exclusion of names of genuine Indian citizens, that too to the tune of lakhs, and said that the present form of NRC update was not correct as not only the names of Bengali Hindus and Hindi-speaking people but also the names of indigenous people and tribal communities had not been included in the final NRC update.
Gupta, who held several meetings with people at different places of Dhubri district, said that only in fours wards of Dhubri town, 667 names of genuine Indian citizens did not find place in the final NRC list which was being viewed seriously by the party and it was working on finding a solution.
The final tally of non-inclusion in the State is being prepared by the party’s NRC monitoring cell and once the process is completed, the party will be able to raise the issue at the highest level, Gupta said.
“But before that we will have to wait as NRC has not yet been submitted to the Supreme Court by NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hazela. Let it come into public domain and further, wait for the observation and opinion of the Supreme Court,” Gupta said while pointing out legal sides.
Gupta said the NRC update – a much sought after and awaited document for the people of Assam, that too after four long years, came to an end as the final list excluding 19,06,657 names was published. But now it was nothing but a heap of waste papers as time, labour and money had been lost owing to the arrogant attitude of Prateek Hazela who miserably failed to bring out a correct NRC.
He said that party had filed writ petition before the Supreme Court seeking 20 per cent re-verification of names in districts bordering Bangladesh while 10 per cent in rest of the districts of the State. But NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela submitted in the court that he had already done the re-verification of 27 per cent. “It was an utter lie spoken by Hajela in his submission,” alleged Gupta.
In his media interaction, Gupta also hinted that the government was completing the process to enact a bill if the situation arises to include the names of genuine Indian citizens and indigenous people in the list of NRC, besides bringing in the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) at an appropriate time.
Gupta said that the party thoroughly apprised Union Home Minister Amit Shah who would be in Assam for a couple of days from on Sunday. He, however, appealed to the people whose names were excluded of the NRC list not to get scared and remain united to fight for the justice.
On the question on the party’s organizational strength and its election, Gupta said that the membership had increased many folds while party election from booth level would be held at the dates announced.