Bengal, Bihar people discriminated in Assam NRC: Mamata

Names of Bengal and Bihar residents in Assam was removed predominantly from state's National Register of Citizens (NRC) final draft, alleged Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday.

Addressing a gathering in Kolkata at Hindi Mahotsav and Samman Samaroh, she said, "I consider myself a human first and humanity is the most important thing for me. In Assam, names of people from Bihar and Bengal were removed. Names of Assam people were also removed from NRC but maximum removed names are of those who had come from outside. Let's see what happens in the final list. But I can proudly say that in Bengal this has never happened nor will ever be allowed to take place."

She also asked the residents from the northern part of India to consider Bengal as their home and said, "Never consider me as an outsider. Consider me as your own daughter and sister. If no one listens to you, come to me, I will hear everyone."

Banerjee has remained the fiercest critic of Assam NRC since the release of its first draft. While addressing Trinamool Chhatra Parishad(TMCP) foundation day in Kolkata on August, 28 she had said that the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) will be wiped in 2019 before imposing NRC in West Bengal.

The first draft of NRC for Assam was released on the intervening night of December 31, 2017 and January 1, 2018 containing the name of 1.9 crore Assamese. The second and final draft, which was released on July 30, included names of 2.89 crore people, out of 3.29 crore applicants in Assam, leaving out names of nearly 40 lakh people.

NRC is a register containing names of Indian citizens, which was prepared for the only time in 1951 and is being updated for only Assam to weed out illegal immigrants.