GUWAHATI: Thirty-one organisations, led by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), have demanded that people belonging to various indigenous and tribal communities of the state, who were left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), be included in the list without any conditions.
Barring AASU, all the other organisations represent various tribal communities.
“The NRC has excluded the names of many indigenous and tribal people but included the names of illegal immigrants. We demand the inclusion of names of the indigenous and tribal people without any condition and exclusion of names of the illegal immigrants,” advisor to AASU, Samujjal Bhattacharya, said.
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As the issue is sensitive, the NRC authorities have not disclosed community or religion-wise figures of exclusions. However, various groups have come up with divergent figures.
Some say the number of indigenous and tribal people left out is around one lakh. A Bengali students’ organisation claimed that the number of Bengali Hindus excluded is around 12 lakh.
Over 19 lakh people were excluded from the NRC, the final list of which was published on August 31.
The AASU demanded the indigenous and tribal people, excluded from the list, be included without forcing them to approach the tribunals to prove their citizenship.
Bhattacharya said despite demands by various organisations, the Centre and the Assam government have not taken steps to delete the names of illegal immigrants from the NRC.
Troops to move out
As Assam has not witnessed a single incident of violence related to the NRC, the centre has decided to withdraw around 100 companies of the central paramilitary forces deployed in the state Among the 100 companies, 50 belong to the BSF, 10 CRPF, 16 ITBP and 24 SSB.
A company of a paramilitary force comprises around 100 personnel. Sources said the forces will start moving out in a day or two.
A Home Ministry official said a decision was taken on August 19 to deploy 218 companies of paramilitary forces to maintain law and order ahead of the publication of the final NRC