Assam cops file FIR against Mamata over NRC remark
SENSITIVE Complainants say Bengal CM’S comment that Centre was using NRC exercise to drive out Bengalis was ‘inflammatory’
GUWAHATI: The Assam police on Thursday registered a case against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee following complaints alleging she made inflammatory speech over the updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the northeastern state.
The Bjp-led coalition government in Assam also condemned Banerjee for stating on Wednesday the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government was “conspiring” to strike off the names of 12.5 million Bengalis from t he updated NRC to eventually drive them out in a move “similar to Bongal kheda of the 1960s” that made over 50,000 take refuge in Bengal.
“What she (Banerjee) said is unbecoming of a CM and is an insult to the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the NRC updating exercise. The state government is merely a facilitator,” Assam industries minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said.
“Our government has taken utmost care to ensure a smooth updating exercise, but her party and others are unhappy that there has been no violence or communal tension to cash in on,” he added.
While social activist Kailash Sharma and advocate Tailendra Nath Das lodged separate complaints against Banerjee for her “inflammatory speech”, the state BJP urged the Registrar General of India and the officials involved in the NRC exercise to file a case against her in the Supreme Court.
“Banerjee made the comment to lure Bengali-speaking people towards TMC because the BJP is gaining ground in her state. Ben- galis in Assam have had no issues with NRC ,” state BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass said.
The NRC of 1951 is being updated in Assam under the supervision of the SC to identify original residents of the state in order to check illegal migration.
The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) also lashed out at Banerjee. “At a time when the situation in Assam is sensitive on the citizenship issue, such a statement from a responsible person like Mamata Di is condemnable,” AIUDF chief Maulana Badruddin Ahmed said. GUWAHATI: The Assam government wants to focus on enrolment of residents for Aadhaar after releasing the first part draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on December 31.
Work on the enrolment for Aadhaar had not picked up pace in the state over fears that the 12-digit number could be misused by illegal migrants to get enlisted in the register.
Enrolment for the number had started in Assam as a pilot project in 2014 but it was restricted to only three districts. Only 7.4% of the state’s population of over 34 million has got their Aadhaar numbers till December 31 last year — the lowest enrolment figure among all the states and Union territories.
The process was to begin last month but was stalled after the Centre’s directive to the state not to involve private agencies for enrolment due to safety and privacy issues. Enrolment is once again expected to start from the end of this month or beginning of February.