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Noisy scenes in House over foreigners issue

By STAFF REPORTER - 15 Sep 2010 12:00 AM GMT

GUWAHATI, Aug 31 - The autumn session of the State Assembly today began on a noisy note as the Opposition tried to corner the BJP-led government on the foreigners issue insisting that the new Citizenship (Amendment) Act goes against the spirit of the Assam Accord.

Seeking to know the steps taken by the government for implementing the Accord, Congress legislator Rupjyoti Kurmi questioned why nothing has been done on the NRC even after one year of its publication.

�Now, the government is intending to change the base year to 2014, which is against the spirit of the Assam Accord. Without implementing Clause 5 of the Accord, the Centre has formed a committee on Clause 6, the report of which is yet to be accepted by the government,� Kurmi alleged, also questioning why MHA Joint Secretary Satyendra Garg, who is the member secretary of the Clause 6 committee, has not signed the report.

Kurmi continued to create noisy scenes, despite attempts by Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami to intervene and retorts from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary.

The Speaker later suspended Kurmi for the Question Hour and he was marshalled out of the House.

However, AIUDF legislator Mamun Imdadul Haque Chawdhury continued to attack the government pointing out that only 227 foreigners were deported from the State in the last seven years. �Is this the testimony of the government�s steps to implement the Assam Accord?� he wanted to know, also questioning the confusion over the status of NRC.

�The CAA clearly violates the Assam Accord. What is happening in the NRC? What is the status of Clause 6 of the (Assam) Accord? The State government needs to come clear on these issues,� Chawdhury said.

Reiterating the State government�s commitment in implementing the Assam Accord in letter and spirit, minister Patowary said the government has submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court on the NRC insisting on 20 per cent reverification of the names in border districts and ten per cent of the names in other districts.

�But our NRC coordinator did not do the things properly and was against the reverification,� Patowary said, adding that India had been providing long term visas to refugees and the CAA will only make them formal citizens of the country.

On the small number of foreigners deported from the State in the last seven years, Patowary said cases were pending in courts and legal hassles were delaying the declaration and deportation of the illegal migrants.

�Only around 5 km of the Indo-Bangla border remains to be fenced. We have also deployed Assam Police battalion as the second line of defence in the border areas,� he added.