Maximum 5.42 lakh people will benefit by amended Citizenship

Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said a maximum of 5.42 lakh people will be benefitted in the state by the amended Citizenship Act in the state.

Sarma, a senior BJP leader, said, that rumours were being spread by a certain section of people who claimed that over a crore of people will be benefitted by the Act and more people from Bangladesh will pour into Assam.

He said that members of Congress and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), a peasant organisation of the state, were found to be involved in the violence that rocked the state and Guwahati, its epicentre, after the amendment was passed by Parliament.

"However, we do not know at this moment if they indulged in violence in their personal capacities or at their organisational levels. A detailed probe will ascertain that," he said.

"As per the Assam government estimates a maximum of 5.42 lakh will be benefitted from the Act. It may be less than that," Sarma told a press conference here.

Asked about the source of the figure, he said that it has been arrived at after assessing persons whose names did not figure in the final list of National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The final NRC list in Assam, published on August 31 this year, had excluded over 19 lakh people.

On being pointed out that the Assam government has sought to reject the NRC and whether any data from such a document is acceptable, Sarma said "It will be debated in the court.

"Personally I feel that if the application process is opened again, this figure will be less than five lakh," he said.

He said, KMSS adviser Akhil Gogoi has been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for his alleged links with terror activities.

Gogoi was arrested from Jorhat on December 12 in view of the deteriorating law and order situation in Assam and his associates were arrested the next day from Guwahati.