Govt must ensure inclusion of 'indigenous' people left out of NRC: Upamanyu Hazarika

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Upamanyu Hazarika, a former Supreme Court lawyer who has been vocal about the alleged exclusion of "indigenous" population of the state from the NRC, batted for "a fresh initiative" to ensure their inclusion in the citizens register.

Guwahati:With the date for the publication of final National Register of Citizens inching closer, the fear of not making it to the contentious register is also growing among the people of the state.

Upamanyu Hazarika, a former Supreme Court lawyer, who has been vocal about the alleged exclusion of "indigenous" population of the state from the NRC, batted for "a fresh initiative" to ensure their inclusion in the citizens register while speaking to ETV Bharat.

Hazarika said, "There are a significantly large number of citizens who have not applied for inclusion into the NRC, the question is what is their status after the final publication of the NRC. This creates a very peculiar and ridiculous situation for those who are actual citizens, with them not finding their place in the NRC only because they have not applied."

"These are people who would be counted as original inhabitants of the state in terms of their roots and who would accordingly have documents dating 1971 or 1951," added Hazarika.

"For the original inhabitant who is left out of the NRC, for whatever reasons including non-applications or rejection on technical ground, the government must take up a fresh initiative to include those left out of the register, " said Hazarika, who also fought the Guwahati Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 general elections on the ground of "illegal infiltration" as an electoral issue.

The Assam government in April claimed that the percentage of people excluded from the draft National Register of Citizens was lower in districts bordering Bangladesh, that have a sizeable Muslim population than those where Hindus were in majority.

Assam Accord Implementation and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary placed a district-wise list of inclusions, rejections and non-inclusion of applicants’ names in the NRC in the state Assembly.

The list showed the total number of applicants was 3,29,91,385 out of which 40,07,717 names (12.15 per cent) were not included. The percentage of excluded names in the districts bordering Bangladesh, such as South Salmara was 7.22, Dhubri 8.26 and Karimganj 7.67. Non-border districts Hojai and Darrang have the highest non-inclusion rate at 32.99 per cent and 30.90 per cent, respectively.

The final NRC is scheduled to be published on August 31.