GUWAHATI, July 30 - The All Assam Students� Union (AASU) has described the publication of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) as a �historic event� for Assam and asserted that when the final NRC is published, it would give the much needed protection to the indigenous people of the State. The AASU also demanded that immediately after the publication of the final NRC, the electoral rolls of the State should be revised on the basis of it and photo identity cards should be provided to the Indian citizens living in the State.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, AASU chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said that the people of the State had to agitate for six years and then waited for 32 years for the implementation of the Assam Accord. He said that today, with the publication of the draft of the NRC, the movement of the people reached one stage and this was possible mainly because of the constant monitoring of the process of updating the NRC by the Supreme Court. He expressed the hope that the Supreme Court would continue to monitor the process till the final NRC is published.
Bhattacharya said that such a massive exercise like updating of the NRC was never carried out in the entire country before and the indigenous people of the State extended full support to the entire process. He pointed out that more than 3.29 crore people of the State applied for inclusion of names in the NRC and 6.6 crore documents had to be examined during the process. He thanked all the officials and employees of the Government involved in the process and said that non inclusion names of more than 40 lakh applicants proved that a large number of foreigners were staying illegally in the State.
The AASU chief adviser said that the students� body would extend full support to any Indian citizen, if his or her name does not appear in the NRC during the process of filing of claims and objections. He also warned that no one should try to give communal or linguistic colour to the process of updating the NRC. �It is a question of citizens and foreigners. The NRC was updated through a legal and scientific process under the monitoring of the Supreme Court and no one should try to create confusion among the people. We are of the strong opinion that Assam has taken the burden of foreigners who came to Assam up to the midnight of March 24, 1971 and the State will never take the burden of any more foreigner,� he asserted.
