AASU says final NRC contains flaws, will appeal in SC

The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) on Saturday it is unhappy with the figure of exclusions in the final National Register of Citizens and will move the Supreme Court for remedial measures.

The AASU is a signatory to the Assam Accord, a 1985 document that provided for "detection, deletion and deportation" of illegal foreigners from Assam.

The NRC in the state has been updated under the monitoring of the Supreme Court to include only genuine Indian nationals.

"We are not happy at all. It seems there were some deficiencies in the updatation process. We believe that it is an incomplete NRC. We will appeal to the Supreme Court to remove all the faults and discrepancies in this NRC," AASU General Secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi told press conference.

Gogoi said the final figure of exclusion did not reach near the figures officially announced by the authorities on various occasions.

The final NRC was released on Saturday leaving out 19,06,657 applicants.

However, In July 30 last year, its Complete Draft was released excluding over 40 lakh people. An additional 1,02,462 people were left out in June this year, taking the total number of ineligible persons to 41,10,169.

AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath claimed that the state government and the Centre got enough scope to find out the illegal immigrants, but they failed because of their inactions.

"We had demanded that only 10 documents be entertained to claim inclusion in the NRC, but the government allowed 15 documents. Also, the government did not file objections against suspected illegal Bangladeshis in the NRC process, which could have led to their exclusion," he claimed.

Moreover, the state government and its Border Police did not refer suspected illegal immigrants to the Foreigners Tribunal and the administration continued transferring its officials involved in the NRC updation process, Nath alleged.

"The Assam and central governments failed to prepare an error-free NRC and lost a historic opportunity," he added.

AASU Chief Adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya said the organisation will seek remedial measures from the Supreme Court and it will decide on the ways to remove the flaws in this NRC.

He said the future works on the NRC should also continue under the monitoring of the Supreme Court.

Bhattacharya said, "The AASU had spearheaded the six- year-long Assam Agitation to detect and deport illegal Bangladeshis from Assam. Now, if any indigenous citizen is left out, we will provide them with legal support."