GUWAHATI: About 9.27 per cent of the applicants in National Register of Citizens from the seven districts bordering Bangladesh have been excluded in the final draft, Prabajan Virodhi Manch on Monday revealed.
The anti-influx body alleged that the excluded figure fall “far short of the official estimates”, especially because, these districts – Dhubri, South Salmara, Nagaon, Goalpara, Morigaon, Karimganj, Barpeta – have registered a decadal population growth of 18.78 per cent in 1991-2001 and 19.25 per cent in 2001-2011.
“In the breakup against a state average of the 11.59% (40,07,707 applicants out of 3,29,91,384) applicants who were excluded from NRC, border districts have given figures of exclusion which are far below the state average with Dhubri at 7.49%, Karimganj at 7.49 % and South Salamara at 7.49%. The decadal growth rate of population in the border districts of Dhubri, Goalpara, Barpeta, Karimganj, Naogaon and Morigoan has been between 21%, 24% for the decades between 1991-2001 to 2001-2011 and 18.19% for 1991-2001,” Upamanyu Hazarika, convenor of the body mentioned.
“It is evident that the influx of Bangladesh immigrant to the bordering districts of Assam is high. However, the percentage of exclusion from Final Draft does not match with the population growth. This indicates that a lot of Bangladeshi immigrants have already registered their names in the NRC, Also, the official estimate of 40 lakh that is likely to reduce considerably after the claims and objections period is way less than the official estimates.” Hazarika added.
He further sighted that, in July 2004, Shriprakash Jaiswal, then Union Minister of State for Home had told Parliament that as of 2001 there were 1.2 crore Bangladeshis in India, of which 50 lakhs were in Assam, which meant Assam had 40 per cent of the illegal Bangladesh migrants in India.
On the other hand, Hazarika had alleged that several original inhabitants have been excluded by the NRC.
“In the districts such as Karbi Anglong which is mostly inhabited by indigenous people, about 17 per cent have been excluded, there are major discrepancies in the NRC final draft,” Hazarika alleged.
Cabinet minister from Asom Gana Parishad, an ally of the incumbent BJP, Atul Bora, in the same tune, said, “The centre is trying giving citizenship to foreigners. Our stand is clear -- not a single foreigner’s name should be admitted and not a single Indian name should be excluded.”
Bora, who is also the president of AGP, despite being BJP’s ally, had been caustically vocal about the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that sought to give citizenship to religious minorities of neighbouring states residing here.
Regarding the centre’s recent stand on providing long-term visa to religious minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh who faced religious persecution, Bora said, “Assam should be free of foreigners at any cost. In order to do that, we will always refute both the long-term Visa allotment to Hindu Bangladesh people and Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.”