NRC issue rocks KMC session

The issue of proposed implementation of NRC in West Bengal had its reverberations in Kolkata Municipal Corportion's monthly session on Friday and mayor Firhad Hakim assured the councillors that the contentious register of citizens would not be implemented in Bengal as long as TMC is in power in the state.

Hundreds of people had lined up at government and municipal offices here and across West Bengal to collect their birth certificates and necessary documents to be prepared should the National Register of Citizens be implemented in the state despite assurances by the TMC government that it would not be allowed.

Opposition councillors of the Congress and Left Front trooped to the well of the house and demanded a statement from the mayor over the panic that has gripped the city over proposed NRC implementation in Bengal.

Veteran Congress coucillor Prakash Upadhyay sought to know from Hakim, who is also the urban development minister, about steps taken by the civic body to allay fears over NRC.

"Just giving lectures and speeches won't work. Concerete steps have to be taken to ensure that there is no panic," he said.

BJP councillor Vijay Ojha protested against Upadhyay's statement and said the party's government at the Centre would soon bring Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Parliament to give citizenship to refugees.

NRC would be implemented only to weed out illegal infiltrators and not a single Hindu will have to leave the country, Ojha said.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 provides for according Indian citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after seven years of residence in India instead of 12 years, which is the current norm, even if they do not possess any document.

Hakim assuring the house said, "As long as the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government is there NRC will never be implemented in Bengal. The BJP will get a befitting reply in 2021 assembly polls for creating a reign of fear and terror over NRC".

The alleged omission of a large number of names of Bengalis from the final NRC list in BJP-ruled Assam had apparently created panic among the people and has led to 11 deaths in the state so far, a government official had said.

Large queues were seen outside the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) headquarters and other division offices in the city as well as BDO offices in other parts of Bengal as people waited for their turn to search for land and other necessary documents.

More than 19 lakh people in Assam had been excluded from the final NRC published on August 31.