[caption id="attachment_269250" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
Bodo women check their names in the final list of National Register of Citizens (NRC), at an NRC Seva Kendra at Bagan Para in Baska district of Assam on Monday. (PTI)[/caption]
New Delhi, Sep. 2 (IANS): The Union Home Ministry on Monday said that those left out of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam will not be detained, under any circumstances, till they "exhaust" all remedies available under law.
Such people can appeal to the Foreign Tribunals within 120 days, it said, stressing that they will continue to enjoy all their rights as earlier, like any other citizens.
"The affected persons will continue to enjoy rights like right to employment, education, property etc," Home Ministry spokesperson Vasudha Gupta said in a tweet.
In another tweeet, she said: "State government has also made necessary arrangements to provide legal aid to the needy people amongst those excluded from NRC final list, by providing all assistance through the District Legal Services Authorities (DLSA)."
Saying that adequate judicial process is available for affected persons to appeal to Foreigners Tribunal within 120 days from August 31 this year, the ministry said that "to facilitate appeal, 200 new FTs to be functional from today (Monday), in addition to 100 already existing".
In the final NRC list released on Saturday, 30.1 million people were found eligible to be included, while more than 1.9 million were left out.
The ones left out are mostly Bengali Hindu refugees who had come to Assam before 1971, or people who couldn't furnish the necessary documents.
Unhappy BJP to move SC seeking re-verifcation of NRC data
The final list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) may be out in Assam, but both the central and the state BJP feel that there's enough room for errors. Hence, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to move the Supreme Court again to re-verify select data.
According to Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam Finance Minister and BJP's face in the northeast, the party would move the top court asking for a re-verification of 20 per cent of the sample data in the districts bordering Bangladesh. The BJP will also seek re-verification of 10 per cent of samples from the main land of Assam. This demand will be against the draft NRC.
The draft NRC gave BJP a surprise when many from the border districts, where the population is dense, made it to the list. It was presumed that majority of them were illegal Bangladeshis.
No wonder that the spat between the BJP and Prateek Hajela, the chief coordinator of the NRC, has came out in the open.
Sarma, who's often referred to as the Amit Shah of northeast, had said, "We have lost hope in the present form of the NRC right after the draft. When so many genuine Indians are left out, how can you claim that this document is a red letter for the Assamese society?"
In the final NRC list released on Saturday, the ones left out are mostly Bengali Hindu refugees who had come to Assam before 1971, or people who couldn't furnish enough documents.
Even Assam BJP President Ranjeet Kumar Dass has expressed his discontent over the final NRC List.
On Saturday, the final NRC list was released which made 30.1 million people eligible to be included, while leaving out more than 1.9 million.
Over 1.9 million people were left out of the much-awaited final NRC list, which named 30.1 million people as Indian citizens.
Differences seem to have cropped up in the Congress' Assam unit over the NRC, with former chief minister Tarun Gogoi describing it a "waste paper" and a Lok Sabha MP terming it a "historic scientific document".
The final National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published on Saturday and, according to it, out of the total 3.3 crore applicants, 3.11 crore figured in the list and names of about 19 lakh people were excluded.
"I have been saying for long that the NRC would be a waste paper. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi had said Tarun Gogoi rolled out a red carpet for the foreigners.
"But, instead of throwing out the illegal immigrants, he (Modi) could not prepare the NRC properly. We are with all Indians who were excluded from the NRC," Gogoi said in a tweet in Assamese.
Congress MP from Barpeta, Abdul Khaleque, however, described the NRC, which validates bona fide Indian citizens of Assam, as a "milestone" and a "historic scientific document".
"Although lots of names of Indian Citizens drops from final NRC, but it's a historic scientific document prepared by Government of Assam and Government of India under the supervision of Hon'ble Supreme Court of India. No doubt, it's milestone (sic)," Khaleque tweeted.
The former chief minister's son and Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi said it was due to the "carelessness" of state authorities that a genuine Indian citizen excluded from the NRC will now have to go to court.
"In Assam, BJP says that excluded persons need not panic because they can approach a tribunal court. Question is why should a genuine Indian need to go to court to prove his or her citizenship, when it's clearly due to the carelessness of the state authorities," he tweeted.
