Assam, Centre to form panel to deal with people left out of NRC: Himanta Biswa Sarma

GUWAHATI: Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said the Centre and the state government would form a joint panel to deal with people who would be left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

BJP’s ally in the Assam government, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), on Monday wrote to BJP chief Amit Shah that it would move out of the alliance if the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 was passed in the Parliament session starting Tuesday.

The deadline for filing claims and objection for 40 lakh people who have been left out in final draft NRC published on July 30 is December 15. The NRC authorities have till Sunday received only 10.25 lakh claims for inclusion on the list and 233 objections to the names already figuring on it.


Sarma, who is also the chairman of the Cabinet Sub Committee on NRC, said: “We had a meeting with the home ministry and it was decided that a committee to be constituted to deal with those left out of the NRC. The committee will submit a report to the home ministry.”

In the run up to the publication of the final draft in July, union home minister Rajnath Singh assured that there was no question of any coercive action against anyone based on the draft NRC.

The BJP-AGP alliance, struck prior to the 2016 assembly polls, is facing a tough time and both parties are attaching each over the Bill, which seeks to make illegal migrants of some minority communities coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship.

AGP president Atul Bora said: “The alliance was struck before the assembly election mainly on the basis of commitment to the implementation of the Assam Accord. But we have seen later that the (central) government came up with the Bill which is against the spirit and objective of the Accord. In such a situation, it will be very difficult to maintain the alliance if the Bill is passed in Parliament.”

Both parties were engaged in a bitter war of words in the recently held panchayat polls, which they fought separately. There is now speculation if the alliance will continue till the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

BJP leaders including chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal have accused the AGP of helping the Congress and having a secret understanding with the opposition.

AGP leaders said the alliance was done in the presence of Amit Shah. “We want to remind him that any move against Assam’s interest would affect the coalition,” said one of them.

BJP state president Ranjeet Kumar Das said he was not aware of the AGP writing to Shah regarding the alliance. But Das said he would raise the issue of friction with the AGP at the BJP’s national office bearers meeting in New Delhi on December 13.