Bangladeshi Nationals Working at NRC Centres: Assam BJP President Ranjeet Dass

Guwahati, August 26, 2019:

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Assam state president, Ranjeet Kumar Das on Monday expressed his dissatisfaction with the proceedings of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that will be published on August 31. Dass also made some bombshell allegations against the NRC authorities, claiming that Bangladeshi nationals are working in NRC Seva Kendras across the state.

Addressing the press here today, Ranjeet Kumar Das said that the BJP party has welcomed the Centre’s move to increase the time limit of filing of appeals in FTs from 60 days to 120 days.

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Das alleged that there are many reports of Bangladeshi nationals being appointed as workers in the NRC centre. "Also, during the hearing, many officers tried to frame Indian citizens as 'foreigners' but no counter verification was done", he said.

Explaining the rationale behind the high cost incurred in the publication of the NRC, Dass stated that although there have been allegations of spending Rs 1,200 crore in the exercise of NRC, for the Government, the Indian Nationals are more important than that Rs 1,200 crore. "We cannot afford to exclude a single genuine citizen from the NR", he said.

Das also mentioned that Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also provided many suggestions during the exercise of NRC. However, on July 13, 2017, the Supreme Court had asked him not to intervene in the NRC process.

The BJP state president also alleged that the NRC State Coordinator, Prateek Hajela is carrying out the entire exercise of the NRC under the influence of local bodies. He also alleged that although the BJP party has suggested many ideas, none of these were accepted.

“Now the local bodies that were supporting Prateek Hajela has also raised demand of a free and fair NRC. 55 thousands of supporting workers were provided by the government to carry out the entire exercise, but anomalies were reported. We are not happy with the processing of the NRC and we have the right to demand free and fair NRC. If any anomalies are reported, we are prepared to carry it to the party high command", he said.

He further added that there were instances of submission of birth certificate which during cross checking did not match the issue date. Even Army jawans have been excluded, he alleged.

“We also urge the people to approach the Foreigner’ Tribunal court whose names are being excluded for legal support, thus, they should not panic. Legal Aid Societies are available which are directed to provide legal aid to those people", he added.

Meanwhile, another BJP leader, MLA Shiladitya Dev has alleged that Bangladeshi nationals are deliberately being featured in the NRC.

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