GUWAHATI: The All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) has welcomed the Supreme Court’s order that turned down the request of Centre and Assam government to conduct 20 per cent sample re-verification of draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the districts bordering Bangladesh and 10 per cent sample re-verification in the other districts.
The students’ body said by turning down the request, the Supreme Court had thwarted a conspiracy of the Centre and the BJP which allegedly did not want the draft’s publication.
“People have already suffered a lot in proving their citizenship by being forced to visit NRC Seva Kendras in faraway places. Had the court entertained the request of Centre and Assam government, they would have suffered again,” advisor to AAMSU Azizur Rahman told this newspaper.
The AAMSU is also happy that the NRC final draft will be published at one go on August 31.
“NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela said if the time is not extended, he will publish the final draft in two phases. It’s good that the deadline has been extended by a month. It will help them publish the draft entirely at one go,” Rahman said.
The Assam Public Works (APW), which filed a petition seeking 100 per cent re-verification of the documents of applicants, said the ball was in the court of NRC authorities so ensure a correct draft.
“The NRC state coordinator satisfied the court that the name of not a single immigrant was included in the draft. As they have already done the re-verification of 28 per cent of the applicants during the process of claims and objections, they said there was no need for the process again. The court was satisfied. It was happy that the name of no Bangladeshis entered the draft,” APW president Abhijit Sarma said.