Citizenship Bill will Protect NE, says Biplab Kumar Deb

Agartala, December 7, 2019:

With the controversial Citizenship Bill inching closer towards its tabulation in the Parliament, Tripura's controversial Chief Minister Biplab Kr. Deb has weighed in on the pressing issue.

ALSO READ: NESO calls for Northeast ‘Bandh’ on December 10

Biplab, who leads the BJP Tripura unit, has opined that the Bill will not harm the interests of the people of Tripura at all. In fact, the Bill will protect the people of the State, Biplab said.

Reacting to the sustained protests against the Bill in all corners of the Northeast, Biplab said that the people should not be hasty in their judgement. Rather, the people of the region should form their opinion after the contents of the Bill have been disclosed, Deb said.

ALSO READ: Centre pushing Northeast towards demographic change with Citizenship Bill, says Manipur MP

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will not affect the states in the Northeast with Inner Line Permit (ILP). Furthermore, the tribal areas protected under the 6th schedule of the Constitution shall also not be affected by the Bill.

However, the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill are continuing in the Northeast -- most notably in Assam.

Meanwhile, Northeast Students’ Organization (NESO), which is an umbrella body of student organizations, has called for a Northeast-wide bandh on December 10 as a mark of protest against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The ‘bandh’ will be in effect from 5 am in the morning till 4 pm in the evening. However, the parts of Nagaland which are celebrating the ‘Hornbill Festival’ will be exempted from the ‘bandh’. In Nagaland, the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) will be staging a protest in front of the Raj Bhavan in the state.

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