GUWAHATI, April 20 - The Social Justice Forum today urged the State Coordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) Prateek Hajela to initiate urgent steps for removing the problems faced by the poor people in the process of examination of the information concerning their family trees and the certificates issued to them by the secretaries of their respective gaon panchayats.
A delegation of the forum told the Coordinator that a good number of poor people are made to travel to distant places in the name of examination of their family trees. This is causing financial hardships and physical problems to these people. Again, some people are made to travel to several places for examination of the documents produced by them before the NRC authorities.
Many of those who have submitted papers issued by the gaon panchayats, are asked to produce PAN cards, school certificates, etc., issued to them prior to 2015. This has resulted in serious problems for many of the married women who are illiterate and poor.
The NRC officials are doing this despite the fact that the Supreme Court of India has directed the authorities to accept the papers issued by the gaon panchayats in case of married women as valid documents for the purpose of entering their names in the NRC.
The forum delegation included Dewan Jainal Abedin, Kantimoy Deb, Golap Majumdar, Majedur Rahman and Atikul Haque, said a press release.
