GUWAHATI, July 27 - The All Assam Students� Union (AASU) today demanded that the Government should increase the number of National Register of Citizens (NRC) Seva Kendras so that all the genuine Indian citizens get the opportunity to submit their forms before the expiry of the deadline for the same.
AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath told The Assam Tribune that there is an urgent need for increasing the number of Seva Kendras. Besides the manpower should also be increased. He pointed out that lack of adequate infrastructure is another major problem and to add to the woes of the people, the internet server goes down very frequently, forcing the people to wait in the Kendras for hours. At this rate, it is doubtful whether all the genuine Indian citizens would be able to submit their application forms within the stipulated time-frame, he said.
It may be mentioned here that the last date for submission of forms for inclusion of names in the updated NRC has been extended from July 31 to August 31, but unfortunately, more than 70 per cent of households of the State are yet to submit their application forms. The AASU president said that as the Supreme Court has made it clear that the process should be completed by January 1 next year, it is very unlikely that the last date for submission of application forms would be extended further. He appealed to the Indian citizens to submit their application forms as soon as possible.
On the efforts by the AASU to motivate and help the indigenous people of the State to submit application forms, Nath said that the students� body has set up help desks in different parts of the State to help the people to search out legacy data and to fill up the forms. He said that the help desks received overwhelming response in some parts of the State. But at the same time, he admitted that there is a need for setting up more such help desks for the benefit of the people. He said that the AASU general secretary left for the Upper Assam districts today to monitor the activities of the help desks and he would arrange for setting up more such desks in consultation with the district committees. The AASU will also arrange a meeting with 26 organizations representing different ethnic groups of the State shortly to discuss the issue so that all the organizations can set up such help desks all over the State, he added.
