Four million Assam residents stateless?

FACE DEPORTATION IF CAN’T GIVE PROOF

A staggering 40 lakh people in Assam have been left out of a draft list of citizens released on Monday; they face deportation if they cannot prove their citizenship and allay the doubts of the authorities.

The recount is seen by critics as a move to target Assam's Muslim population on the pretext of weeding out Bangladeshi migrants. It is not clear, however, whether these 40 lakh will be eligible to vote in next year's national election. "The Election Commission will decide," said an official. The register counts only those as Assam citizens who can prove that they were living in the state on or before March 21, 1971.

The anger was palpable with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accusing the ruling BJP of trying to identify and isolate people who don't vote for the party. "They are turning Indian people into refugees in their own country," Banerjee said at a press meet she called at short notice in Kolkata before leaving for Delhi, where she will meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

‘‘Many people have been identified as foreigners and they are to be sent back. There are many children and women among them... So many Bengalis, Biharis, Hindus, Muslims... they are very much Indians," said Banerjee, adding that she was "worried about the torment" of those left out. "It is a game plan to evict human beings forcibly and isolate them. We do not believe in divide and rule policy," she told reporters at the state secretariat Nabanna.

Predictably, there was pandemonium in both the Houses of Parliament, even as Home Minister Rajnath Singh said "there was no need to panic." Singh told the Lok Sabha that the government is not to be blamed as it has no role in the matter; everything has been done under the Supreme Court's supervision. "Don't level baseless allegations against the government," he said.

NEW DELHI: Kota’s BJP MP Om Birla on Monday demanded removal of the agriculture produces from future trading to ensure the minimum support price (MSP) to the farmers. In a special mention in the Lok Sabha, he suggested a market assurance scheme to fulfill the Prime Minister''s plan of doubling the farmers’ income by 2022. He sought the Centre and the State Governments to create a mechanism to buy the Kharif produce from the farmers at the minimum support price (MSP) for 14 crops announced by the Modi government early this month. He said the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) had also recommended that the Centre and the state governmens should make the arrangement in all Mandis to ensure the produces are not sold below the MSP. –Our Bureau