GUWAHATI, July 27 � The Congress-led Government in the State is responsible for creation of a controversy regarding the issue of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of 1951 just to divert the attention of the people from the financial scam in North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council, alleged the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP).
AGP spokesman Atul Bora said that the regional party would never allow the Government to divert the attention of the people from the financial scam in NC Hills. He said that a delegation of the major Opposition parties of the state left for New Delhi today to meet the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister to demand a thorough probe into all the financial dealings of the NC Hills Autonomous Council by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Till now, the CBI has been entrusted with the responsibility of probing only five cases of irregular financial dealings and the Opposition is demanding that all the financial dealings since 2001 should be probed by the CBI.
The Opposition delegation will also meet leaders of all the political parties so that the issue can be raised forcefully on the floor of the Parliament to force the Government to probe all the irregular dealings.
Meanwhile, clarifying the AGP�s stand on the issue of updating the NRC, Bora said that updating the citizenship document would provide Constitutional protection to all Indian citizens who came to Assam before March 25, 1971 irrespective of their religion and no Indian citizen should oppose the move. He said that the party was satisfied with the application form issued for the pilot project of updating the NRC. Bora alleged that the Congress Government was not keen on updating the NRC and that was why Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi declared suspension of the project immediately after a violent protest. The AGP was opposed to suspension of updating the NRC and would not allow the Government to stop the process, he asserted.
The AGP spokesman further said that the steering committee of the party had already decided to snap poll ties with the BJP and only the seal of approval of the central committee was awaited. He said that the central committee would meet next month to decide on the party�s preparedness for the Assembly polls.
Hitting out at the BJP, Bora said that during its tenure in power, the BJP did nothing to deal with the problem of infiltration of foreigners and no step was taken to repeal the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act. Only a case filed in the Supreme Court by AGP leader Sarbananda Sonowal led to the scrapping of the Act, which was a major hurdle in the way of detection and deportation of foreigners, he added.
