BONGAIGAON, June 15 � To protest the failed commitment made by the Congress and the BJP to give citizenship to all Hindu-Bengali migrants living in the State, the All Assam Bengali Youth-Students� Federation has called for a 12-hour Assam bandh from 5 am on June 17.
The Bengali-Hindu men in the State are facing a problem to manage link documents of their woman family members who are married to prove their legacy in filling up of NRC forms, the federation alleged.
Presenting the position of the Hindu-Bengali migrants in the State, the federation leaders said, though there is a law here to ensure resettlement and rehabilitation of the Hindu-Bengali migrants in the State, the latest NRC update process asks this group of people to prove their citizenship with legacy documents.
The Immigration (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, says, �Any person who on account of civil disturbance or the fear of such disturbances in any area now forming the part of Pakistan has been displaced or has left his place or residence in such area and who has been subsequently residing in Assam should be resettled and rehabilitated�.
But many Hindu-Bengali inmates have been languishing in the detention camps, where people are kept for deportation to their original place, in Kokrajhar, Goalpara and Silchar because of their doubtful identity. In these camps child rights are being violated most as per NGOs.
Hence, seeking an end to such harassment to this group in the name of foreigners and demanding citizenship to them, the federation has launched an agitation of which the 12-hour bandh is a part, said the federation leaders.
