GUWAHATI, Sept 28 - A group of conscious citizens of the city have alleged that the consensus arrived at while signing the Assam Accord in 1985 on the alien�s issue has now been threatened by the proposed amendment to the Citizenship Act. This will severely alter the demographic situation and most gravely affect the scope among citizens of the State for ownership of land, appointments in government services, entitlement to funds for development and the power to elect representatives of their choice to run the government, they alleged in a memorandum submitted to the Governor of the State here today.
The signatories of the memorandum, who included noted educationist and writer Dr Hiren Gohain, former Chief Secretary of the State Harendra Nath Das, former DGP of the State Harekrishna Deka, former principal of Cotton College and writer Udayaditya Bharali, former NEHU professors Dr Apurba Baruah and Dr Manorama Sarma and journalists Haider Hussain and Manjit Mahanta, said that the fall out of the amendment as stated above is absolutely unacceptable to the indigenous people of the State.
�There is widespread apprehension among indigenous people that the proposed amendment is an existential threat to the indigenous people with their own cultures, languages and ethnic identities,� said the signatories.
They further said, �As our State is one to be the most seriously affected by the proposed amendment, the Joint Select Committee of the Parliament may be persuaded through your good offices to visit Assam and hold public hearings in the State.
