AASU asks govt to remove names of Bangladeshis from NRC

The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) Friday demanded that the state government take immediate steps to remove the names of Bangladeshis from the NRC.

The Sarbananda Sonowal government should take up a suo motu verification drive for this as it has the power do so, AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya told reporters here.

Assam, which faced an influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having a National Register of Citizens (NRC), first prepared in 1951. It is being updated under the monitoring of the Supreme Court.

The complete draft of the NRC was published on July 30 and included the names of 2.9 crore people out of the total applications of 3.29 crore. There has been a huge controversy over exclusion of 40 lakh people from the draft NRC.

"The names of Bangladeshis have entered the NRC and they must be removed by the government and an error-free NRC should be given to people of the state," Bhattacharya said.

The government can verify and delete the names of foreigners instead of pushing the onus on different organisations to file objections, Bhattacharya said, adding that if the government does not act, the AASU will approach the court.

"Filing objections against doubtful citizens is not easy as many of the districts are dominated by illegal migrants. The clause that objections must be filed at local NRC Seva Kendras makes it difficult for indigenous citizens," he said.

AASU President Dipanka Nath said, "The people of Assam are aware that there are many pockets in the state where suspected Bangladeshis reside. But going to such places to file objections is difficult because of security reasons."