SILCHAR, July 4 � The Citizens� Rights Preservation Committee (CRPC), Assam, has demanded adequate compensation for the families of those who allegedly gave up their lives due to the �wrong policies� of the Government on updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The CRPC leaders alleged that the Government has utterly failed to channelise the process to update the NRC in the right direction. They also demanded that if the Government is really interested in enlisting the names of Indian citizens without harassing and depriving them, it should consider the circumstantial evidence provided by the people and utilise the provisions of the Indian Evidence Act.
In a press release, Bidhayak Das Purkayastha, CRPC general secretary, alleged that the �wrong policies� adopted by the Government were driving some people to commit suicide after failing to meet the requirements sought for in the NRC application forms. �The manner in which the NRC update work is being carried out is faulty. There are numerous anomalies in the system which were highlighted in the memorandum submitted to the NRC State Coordinator by the CRPC on May 16 this year. But unfortunately, the Government has taken no steps to rectify the anomalies and this has led to the untoward incidents of suicide heart attack, suicide attempt, etc., reported from different parts of the State,� Purkayastha claimed.
He added that the CRPC had anticipated the present situation in advance and requested the NRC State Coordinator to remove the anomalies as soon as possible as fear, agony, distress and humiliation might force some people to take unwanted measures. Highlighting the anomalies, the CRPC leaders claimed that the 1951 NRC was in contravention of the legal injunction against it and was incomplete and faulty in nature. The voters list of 1971 is also incomplete and faulty, they alleged, adding that the voters lists of 1952,1957,1962 and 1965 are not available with the Seva Kendras despite the directive from the Supreme Court on June 17, 2013. The number of established Seva Kendras is not sufficient and computers, printers and scanner machines are inadequate and of poor quality in the Seva Kendras. The staff deployed for the NRC project are insufficient and not properly trained due to which people are getting misguided. Genuine Indian citizens are facing problems in obtaining counter signatures of the Circle Officers concerned on the linkage certificates required for married women.
According to the CRPC leaders, the Government has not yet clarified its stand on whether the cases of married women from other States would be considered as they are Indian citizens. The update process is for the National Register of Citizens and not the Assam Register of Citizens, they maintained. Touts and middlemen are operating throughout the State by misleading and squeezing money from people in the name of giving them application forms, filling these up, providing linkage data, certificates, etc. At some places, people have even failed to receive the application forms and more anomalies are coming to light every day.
The CRPC leaders stated that in the list of documents, birth certificates and tenancy records up to March 24, 1971 midnight are accepted as documentary proof. But the Government of India implemented the registration of birth and death through an Act in 1969 and the Assam Government implemented the Tenancy Act (Temporarily Settled Areas), Assam Act XXII in 1971. Blaming the Government for the numerous anomalies and loopholes, the CRPC questioned that since the deadline is March 24, 1971 and one Act was implemented in 1969 and the other in 1971, how many people got the opportunity to possess these documents and how far it is possible to arrive at an error-free NRC within the framework of the present system and guidelines.
