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Centre drafting fresh affidavit on NRC papers

By Spl Correspondent

NEW DELHI, Sept 16 - The Central government is drafting a fresh affidavit opposing Assam NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela�s proposal to drop five documents, a BJP delegation from the Barak valley was reportedly assured by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

An 11-member BJP delegation led by former Union minister Kabindra Purkayastha on Sunday met the Union Home Minister to discuss the recent developments concerning the NRC, Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 among other issues.

�We discussed about NRC on which an attempt is being made to mislead the people. And this has been done by State Coordinator Prateek Hajela. The move to exclude five documents is not acceptable to us and the Union Home Minister has assured us that none of the 15 documents will be allowed to be excluded,� claimed Purkayastha.

�The Centre is drafting a new affidavit, which will be submitted before the Supreme Court. We have been assured that not a single document will be allowed to be excluded,� he said.

Hajela suggested dropping the 1951 NRC, pre-1971 voters� lists, citizenship certificate, refugee registration certificate and ration cards from the 15 documents that are listed as valid proof to support citizenship.

The notification allows persons belonging to minority communities in Bangladesh and Pakistan, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who were compelled to seek shelter in India due to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution in those

countries and entered into India on or before December 31, 2014.

There are attempts being made to divide the people of Brahmaputra and Barak valleys and the BJP is opposed to it, Purkayastha said. �We have demanded that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill should be passed and we were assured that religiously persecuted communities will be granted citizenship as also Long Term Visas,� he said.

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