This Article is From Sep 17, 2019

Those Excluded From Citizens' List Being Harassed Outside Assam: Congress

Those Excluded From Citizens' List Being Harassed Outside Assam: Congress

The final Assam list was released last month. (File)

Guwahati, Assam:

Assam Congress leader Debabrata Saikia, who is also the leader of the opposition in state assembly, has claimed in a letter to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal that people from Assam are being harassed in other states after the release of final citizens' list last month.

"I would like to draw your attention to reports in the media that following the publication of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC), visitors from Assam are being harassed in certain neighbouring states, especially in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram," Mr Saikia wrote.

"It has been reported that certain students' organisations 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 added in the letter, a copy of which is available with NDTV.

In the past two weeks, after the final citizens' list was published on August 31, several cases have been reported by local media about people from Assam being turned back from Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.

"For instance, the Chief Minister of Meghalaya recently revealed in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly that 223 persons from Assam were evicted from Meghalaya because they could not furnish documentary proof of their inclusion in the NRC. Although relevant data is not to hand, yet the situation cannot be expected to be any different in the other neighbouring states," the 54-year-old opposition leader wrote to the chief minister.

"It must be borne in mind that 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," he further added.

Nearly 19 lakh have people have been left out in the NRC. Over the next few months, those left out will try to prove their citizenship before 300 foreigners tribunals set up across the state.

In a notification, the Ministry of Home Affairs had earlier clairified that those who excluded in the NRC will not be declared foreigners and they would be given adequate opportunity to present their case before the foreign tribunals.

In a separate letter to NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela, Mr Saikia has referred to local media reports that say the list posted on the NRC website is "replete with misspelt first names and surnames".

.