SILCHAR, Aug 20 - At a time when there is a lot of hullabaloo about the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 introduced recently by the Union Government and hopes of a possible end of harassment for the Hindu Bengalis in Assam are being refreshed, the Citizen�s Rights Protection Committee (CRPC) Assam has claimed that the Bill is weak and the provisions are insufficient to bring an end to the woes of the people.
Addressing mediapersons here on Saturday, the CRPC top brass echoed it loud and clear that �the Bill brought before the Parliament is by and large weak and calls for additions and alterations�. �At the present status, the Bill is insufficient to fulfil the objectives for which it has been drafted,� said Hafiz Rashid Choudhury, chief advisor to the CRPC.
In his words, the CRPC has decided to meet each member of the Joint Select Committee and submit a draft containing suggestions which must feature in the scheme of things to the members. Choudhury said that the CRPC is thinking to file a case on the NRC in the Supreme Court.
�There is a serious conspiracy behind introduction of the terms Original Inhabitants (OI) and Non-Original Inhabitants (NOI). Nowhere in the NRC or in the Citizenship Act have mentions of the terms. Moreover, neither the Supreme Court nor the office of the Registrar General of India made any such mentions of the said terms. These are deliberately brought in to harass a section of the people in the state,� Choudhury said.
He added that the vicious circle calling the shots might have thought that around 30 lakh Bengali speaking people in the State will not be in position to produce valid documents to validate their claim to be residents of Assam. But since they were not successful in their mission, they introduced the terms OI and NOI.
Nripendra Chandra Saha, president of the CRPC, said, �We want that the regulations should include all categories of people and we shall reach out the masses so that they do not get panicked regarding the terms of OI and NOI as mentioned in the NRC.�
