Visitors from Assam harassed by other NE states after NRC:

Leader of Opposition in Assam Assembly, Debabrata Saikia on Monday urged Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to take up with the CMs of other NE states regarding the alleged harassment of people of Assam visiting the neighbouring states after the publication of final NRC.

Saikia in his letter to the Chief Minister said that there are media reports that following the publication of the final NRC, visitors from Assam are being harassed in certain neighbouring states, particularly in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.

A copy of the letter was made available to PTI.

"It has been reported that certain students organizations of these states, with the cooperation of the respective police forces, are harassing visitors from Assam by seeking documentary proof of their inclusion in the final NRC as a pre-condition for allowing entry", he claimed.

A similar scenario of harassment and persecution had unfolded in these states after publication of the first draft of the NRC, he alleged.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had recently said in their Assembly that 223 persons from Assam were evicted from Meghalaya because they could not furnish documentary proof of inclusion in the NRC, Saikia claimed.

The Union Home Ministry has gone on record to assert that non-inclusion in the final NRC by itself does not brand a person as a foreigner and has also made it clear that the question of citizenship of those omitted from the NRC will be decided by the Foreigners Tribunals and, by implication, the higher judiciary, the leader of opposition said.

The "harassment" of residents of Assam in neighbouring states on the pretext of the NRC is unacceptable in the light of the Central governments avowed policy, he said.

"I request you kindly to get in touch with the respective chief ministers of the neighbouring states in question and urge them to desist from this policy of harassment and expulsion of visitors from Assam", Saikia added.