A petition filed by All Assam Students’ Union in the Supreme Court seeking rectification of the final NRC has “focussed on three broad areas”.
Reposing faith in the apex court, AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said they have focused especially on alleged inclusion of large number declared foreigners in list, exclusion of indigenous and the statements of Central leaders in parliament on number of foreigners to build a case for rectification of the list.
AASU has already filed a petition at the Supreme Court seeking a thorough rectification of the NRC to omit the errors. The final list of the NRC which was published on August 31 has excluded a little more than 19 lakh people.
“The NRC update process was not up to the mark. The guidelines and the instructions of the Supreme Court were not properly followed while carrying out the process. So, the AASU and the people of Assam are not satisfied with the outcome. We have the faith in the Supreme Court and so we have sought the intervention of the court so that the rectification is done properly,” Gogoi said.
Though he did not reveal much since the matter is in the court, he said they have highlighted the inclusion of declared foreigners making it to the list with documents. They have similarly highlighted how indigenous people have been left out.
“And also we have mentioned how Central leaders such as Sriprakash Jaiswal or Kiren Rijiju has given figures of foreigners illegally living in the country in the Parliament but they do not match with the final NRC figures. They are also responsible people. They must have had some basis for making such statements. We have also sought a special provision to include the indigenous people who have been left out. We have tried to build a case, and we are sure the court will take cognizance of our plea,” Gogoi said.
The update process meant to wipe out the illegal settlers in the state was carried out under the jurisdiction of the apex court. AASU and several other organizations are not satisfied with the outcome. Many have objected that the number is less than their expectations.
Even before the publishing of the final list, Centre and the state government had also sought permission from the Supreme Court for verification of 20 percent of draft NRC data in districts bordering Bangladesh and 10 percent in remaining districts. But it was turned down by the apex court. And the NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela had informed the court that around 80 lakh (amounting to 27 percent of the claims) had already been re-verified.
The NRC final list is supposed to feature the names of the individuals who have been living in the state since before March 24 of 1971 or those whose ancestors resided before this cut off date.
