BARPETA ROAD, Dec 28 - The Asam Sahitya Sabha has been opposing and will continue to oppose any move to amend the Citizenship Act felicitating citizenship status to illegal migrants based on religion. This was unanimously adopted at the executive meeting of the Sabha here today.
The third convention of the full executive committee of the Sabha, held today with a daylong programme in the Barpeta Road Sahitya Sabha auditorium, discussed at length on the prevailing situation arising out of the proposed amendment to the Citizenship Act and reiterated its opposition to any such move. The proposal adopted today clearly states that the Central government would be solely responsible for any untoward incident arising out of the proposed amendment.
The Sabha thanked the Supreme Court for its verdict and also for its role to prepare an error-free National Register for Citizens (NRC). The Sabha also thanked State Coordinator Prateek Hajela for his effort to implement the Supreme Court order.
The Sabha observed that since the NRC update process is going on smoothly and that the first draft will be published on the last day of the year and the final draft likely to be published in a reasonable time limit, all stakeholders should desist from creating any problem over it.
The apex literary body of the State also expressed its concern over the reluctance of the State government to implement the State Language Act and promote the mother tongue and Assamese language. The Sabha demanded that all employment-related examinations should contain papers on one�s mother tongue and Assamese with 50 marks each. It also demanded a separate questionnaire for the ensuing population census in 2021 about the second and third languages of a person, besides his mother tongue.
The organisation lauded the role of the State government over the preservation of the Bezbaroa Bhawan in Sambalpur, Odisha and demanded that the Kohima Bhawan of the Sabha should also be preserved as a heritage site.
