GUWAHATI, Dec 5 - Around 500 motorcyclists took part in a procession from Sipajhar to Mangaldai today to send a memorandum to the President, Prime Minister
and Home Minister of India, on behalf of the indigenous peoples of the State in general and those of Sipajhar areas, on the issue of unabated illegal
migration from Bangladesh, through the Deputy Commissioner of Darrang district. The memorandum was signed by around 65,000 people of the Sipajhar Legislative
Assembly Constituency.
Leading anti-illegal migration activist and senior Supreme Court advocate Upamanyu Hazarika took part in the mass signature campaign as a lead speaker and
motivator.
In their memorandum, the Sipajhar people alleged that unabated illegal migration has already reduced the indigenous peoples of the State into minorities in
large parts of the State. They sought the intervention of the President, Prime Minister and Home Minister on five issues.
The signatories asserted that the indigenous peoples of the State �are also vote banks,� and resented that while for the rest of India, the cut-off date for
granting Indian citizenship is July 19, 1948, it has been made March 25, 1971 through amendment to the Citizenship Act to �pander� to the illegal migrants.
Besides the update of the National Register of Citizenship (NRC), they demanded amendment to the Citizenship Act and Section 3 thereof, by making the
condition of citizenship by birth applicable only to those whose both parents are citizens and this condition should be made effective from March 25, 1971
instead of December 3, 2004, or align it with such other date decided by the Supreme Court or other Constitutional authority, which may decide the cut-off
date for conferring citizenship to migrants from erstwhile East Pakistan/Bangladesh.
They further called for urgent steps to implement Clause 5.8 of the Assam Accord by detecting and deporting foreigners, clear all government land, forest
land, grazing land, reserve forests, etc., from encroachment of the illegal Bangladesh migrants, in accordance with Clause 10 of the Assam Accord.
Moreover, they demanded urgent steps to investigate and inquire either by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or any Central investigative agency the
illegalities in the procurement of fabricated identity proofs, involvement of the State Government officials and tampering of the original National Register
of Citizens (NRC) document.
The Government should reserve land ownership and land transfer and alienation rights only to those who were citizens of India in 1951 and their descendants.
The Government should also initiate urgent steps to clear all land in Darrang district, including the 77,420 bighas of land in Sipajhar circle, from
Bangladeshi encroachment and to distribute this huge area of land among the indigenous landless and unemployed youths.
The mass signature campaign was launched jointly by the Prabrajan Birodhi Mancha, Sangrami Satirtha Sanmilan, Sipajhar and Dakhin Pachim Goal Santha,
Mangaldai, who represent the victims of the encroachment of the Bangladeshi infiltrators on the grazing reserves and Government land of Darrang district.
