Convention wants 1951 as cut-off year to identify Indians

The Asian Age.  | manoj anand

India, All India

The NRC which has been published recently had March 24,1971 as cut off date.

Assam Sahitya Sabha president Paramananda Rajbongshi too emphasised the need for an error-free NRC.

Guwahati: A convention of citizens has not only expressed its reservation on the National Registers of Citizens (NRC) but also advocated change cut off year to 1951 for identifying Indian citizens living in Assam. The NRC which has been published recently had March 24,1971 as cut off date.

Speaking at a citizens’ convention organised by the Lok Jagaran Mancha, Assam on ‘Error-free NRC’, representatives of various sociocultural organisations and people from various walks of public life expressed anguish and disgust at members of the indigenous people being left out of the citizen registry.

Stating that names of thousands of indigenous people have not been included in the NRC, while many foreign nationals managed to get their names included through various means of forgery, the convention was of view that the NRC in its present shape was not acceptable to the people.

Among those, who advocated for 1951 as the cut-off year included Aabhijit Sarma of Assam Public Works and Aditya Khakl-ari of the Coordination Committee of the Tribal Organisations of Assam.

Mr Aabhijit Sarma, who was also a petitioner in the Supreme Court that monitored the process of updating the NRC, went on demanding a CBI probe into the entire NRC update exercise, including an audit into the IT partners like WIPRO and others.

Mr Khaklari threw his weight behind 1951 as the cut-off year, arguing that the interest of the indigenous people could be safeguarded only by this method.

Assam Sahitya Sabha president Paramananda Rajbongshi too emphasised the need for an error-free NRC.

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