Legal Aid to Encourage Illegal Foreigners: All Assam Students’ Union

Names not figuring in final NRC

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The AASU (All Assam Students’ Union) has said that the decision of the governments to extend legal aid to people whose names will not figure in the final NRC and the latest amendment to the Foreigners Tribunal Amendment Order 2019 by giving 120 days for filing of appeals to foreigners tribunals (FTs) after the publication of the final NRC ‘will only help and encourage illegal foreigners’.

AASU president Dipanko Kumar Nath and general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi have said that according to legal provisions a person is not an illegal foreigner-only for his/her name not appearing in the final NRC. However, NRC applicants who failed to produce the few specific documents up to 1971 will not figure in the final NRC. Since such NRC applicants failed to produce such documents, doubts will continue to persist on their citizenship status, they say. The two AASU leaders further say that only FTs can declare if a person is a foreigner or not.

The two AASU leaders say that the governments extending legal aid through district legal service authorities to people whose names will not figure in the final NRC will only encourage ‘illegal foreigners’. They also say that 60 days’ time for an NRC applicant to move the FT after his/her names not appearing in the final NRC is enough for getting the job done, and the extension of the time period up to 120 days is also going to encourage illegal foreigners.

The two All Assam Students’ Union leaders also want to know as to what Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal means to say by ‘taking democratic and legislative measures’ after the publication of the final NRC. The Chief Minister made a statement in New Delhi recently that after the publication of the final NRC the State government would take ‘democratic and legislative measures’.

AASU adviser-in-chief Samujjal Bhattacharya said: “NRC is being updated due to the direct supervision of the Supreme Court of India, and we hope to get a correct NRC.” He, however, said that in the past one year, the State government did precious little to nab the declared foreigners.

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