Khasi students reiterate their demand for NRC-like exercise in Meghalaya

The Khasi Students' Union (KSU) on Saturday reiterated its demand of carrying out an NRC-like exercise in Meghalaya for segregating the genuine tribal indigenous communities of the state in order to ensure their survival.

The demand came following the publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. The students' body has also deployed volunteers along the Assam-Meghalaya border even as the anti-infiltration police is conducting random checks of all vehicles entering the state.

"There is a need for the state government to conduct an NRC-like exercise, which will ensure the continuous survival of the indigenous communities of the state," KSU president L Marngar told PTI.

The indigenous communities had become minorities in several pockets of Meghalaya as migrants from different parts of the country as well as from Bangladesh and Nepal had made the north-eastern state their home, he said.

The KSU had appealed to the state government in this regard last year as well.

It had reiterated that 1971 should be the cut-off year to segregate the genuine and non-genuine residents of the state.

The updated final NRC was released in Assam on Saturday, with the authority conducting the exercise shutting out the citizenship claims of over 19 lakh applicants, who now face an uncertain future.

The KSU chief also expressed apprehension that many of those 19 lakh plus people, who did not make it to the NRC in Assam, would try to infiltrate into Meghalaya.

Meghalaya shares a 900-km border with Assam. Vehicles coming to Meghalaya from Assam were being randomly checked to ascertain whether those not included in the NRC were trying to enter the state illegally, a senior anti-infiltration police officer said.