GUWAHATI: Assam CM
Himanta Biswa Sarma
told a local satellite news channel, News Live, that in his estimation about three to six lakh
NRC-rejects
in the state will apply for Indian
citizenship
through the provisions of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019, rules of which were announced by the Centre last week.
“There might be a 10% error in my estimate, but the number of applicants can never be 20 lakh or 1.5 crore as spread by anti-CAA protesters,” Sarma said.
He said an estimated five lakh Hindu migrants from Bangladesh have been excluded from the NRC, which was published in 2019. Among the 3.4 crore applicants, 19 lakh were rejected.
E xplaining the basis of his estimates, Sarma told the channel the cut-off date for applying in the NRC update exercise was March 25, 1971 (the Assam Accord cut-off date for identifying foreigners in Assam) and many Hindu Bengalis migrated to Assam from Bangladesh in 1972 or 1973 or might have gone back and returned to Assam later.
“They stayed in refugee camps but did not get any refugee certificates. When they applied for inclusion in NRC, all that they could give was just a paper with seal and signature that they lived in a relief camp. They had no other documents to prove that they had been living in India those days. But Prateek Hajela (former NRC state coordinator) did not accept this document,” Sarma said, adding that the names of several Bengali Hindus did not make it to the NRC in the process.
“The names of many general Assamese people were also not included in the registry,” he said. “In my view, a section of those who applied in NRC but their names were not included will apply for citizenship under
CAA
. The other section which did not make the cut will go to the tribunals to prove their nationality. There will be no outsider applicants,” Sarma said.
He said among those applicants whose names were excluded in the NRC, about two lakh are ‘proper Assamese’ like those having Das (surname), the ‘Koch-Rajbongshi’ and 1.5 lakh gorkhas. “Besides, seven lakh Muslims and five lakh Hindu-Bengalis had applied in NRC but were rejected. Some of them will submit applications under the CAA, some will take legal recourse,” he added.
We also published the following articles recently
English (US) ·