Northeast students' body demands NRC in entire region

An influential students' body of the north-east Thursday urged the Centre to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the entire region to detect and deport the illegal immigrants living there.

The North East Students' Organisation (NESO) also claimed that China continued to issue staple visa to those residents of Arunachal Pradesh, who desired to travel to the neighbouring country, and urged the Centre to take up the issue with the Chinese authorities.

"Infiltration of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh is continuing unabated. We demand that like Assam, the NRC should be implemented in all the other north-eastern states," NESO chairman Samuel B Jyrwa told a press conference here.

The NRC, a list of Assam's citizens, is currently being updated under the Supreme Court's supervision.

A NESO delegation met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju Wednesday and placed the demands.

The apex body of the students' organisations of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura also strongly opposed the proposed move to amend the Citizenship Act, saying this would allow the illegal immigrants to take up Indian citizenship.

According to the draft Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, the government intends to grant citizenship to the Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Christians, who have faced alleged religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and taken shelter in India.

"Irrespective of their religion, we consider anyone living in India without valid documents as illegal immigrants," said NESO advisor Samujjal K Bhattacharjya.

He also claimed that China continued to issue staple visa to the residents of Arunachal Pradesh and said the Centre must intervene to put an end to the practice.