BJP slams NRC Assam coordinator Prateek Hajela

He told the court that re-verification of documents of 27 per cent of the applicants had been already done during the process of filing of claims and objections.
NRC Assam coordinator Prateek Hajela (File | ANI)
NRC Assam coordinator Prateek Hajela (File | ANI)

GUWAHATI:  As Assam gets set to publish the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) on August 31, NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela has come under the criticism of BJP which heads the state’s three-party ruling coalition.

It was based on Hajela’s submission that the Supreme Court had turned down the request of Centre and Assam government to conduct 20 per cent random sample re-verification of documents in the districts bordering Bangladesh and 10 per cent sample re-verification in the other districts.

He told the court that re-verification of documents of 27 per cent of the applicants had been already done during the process of filing of claims and objections. Santanu Bharali, who is the legal advisor to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, said Hajela had done the re-verification by keeping the state government in the dark. “We had no idea on the re-verification of documents of 27 per cent of the applicants until he (Hajela) told the court the other day,” he added.

The Centre and the Assam government had sought the re-verification of the applicants’ documents on the suspicion that the names of many illegal immigrants had made it to draft NRC.“We feel he (Hajela)  is being influenced by a certain force to publish an erroneous NRC,” BJP spokesperson, Muminul Aowal, said. He said the Centre and Assam government had moved the court to ensure an error-free NRC.

“We want an NRC that won’t have the names of any illegal immigrants. Similarly, we want that no genuine Indian is left out of the draft,” Aowal added. The BJP may be unhappy with the SC’s order but the All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) has welcomed it.

30 illegal immigrants deported to Bangladesh

Thirty illegal immigrants were deported to Bangladesh from Assam on Thursday. Following deportation, the immigrants were received by Bangladeshi authorities in Sylhet district of the country. The office of Bangladesh Assistant High Commissioner in Guwahati helped in pursuing deportation. With these, 124 self-proclaimed Bangladeshi nationals had been deported over the past few years. Karimganj Superintendent of Police, Manabendra Debroy, told this newspaper that the immigrants had no complaints against anyone.

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