Assam Govt to Make Public Number of Hindu Bengalis Excluded from Final NRC, Says Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati: Senior BJP leader of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said the Assam government has decided to table the district-wise figure of Hindu Bengalis excluded from the final NRC list in the current Assembly session.

Sarma, also the state finance minister, claimed that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found "huge irregularities" in the updation process of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state three years ago.

"We will make public the figure of those (excluded) Hindu Bengali people applying (to get their names included in the NRC) in different districts during the ongoing session of the Assembly," he said.

The winter session of the state Assembly that started on Thursday will end on December 6.

"We could not give that data earlier as the NRC had not been prepared. Now we have the data with district-wise break up," Sarma said.

It has been alleged from various quarters that a large number of Hindus have been excluded from the updated final NRC published on August 31 leaving out over 19 lakh applicants.

The Supreme Court-monitored NRC updation exercise, aimed at identifying illegal immigrants, mostly from Bangladesh, was carried out in Assam which has been facing influx of people from the neighbouring country since the early 20th century.

Addressing the media outside in the Assembly premises on the first day of the Winter Session, Sarma said the CAG had inspected the NRC office and its activities about three years ago.

"Prima facie, huge irregularities and anomalies were informed to us by the CAG. It is an official note signed by the CAG of Assam. It is not an Assam government document," he claimed.

But, to avoid confusion among the people, the chief minister and he had decided at that time not to act on that report till the NRC is completed, the minister said.

Sarma did not reveal the sum of the alleged irregularities in the mammoth exercise to update the NRC, the final version of which was published on August 31. To a question on the Assam Accord, he said those who prepared the pact will speak for it.

"I did not sign that Accord. Or did you sign it? Nobody was consulted before signing the Accord. Prafulla Mahanta was a signatory, so he is committed to the Accord. Himanta Biswa Sarma did not sign it, so I am not committed for it. The Assam Assembly has also not endorsed the Accord. There was no proposal in the Assembly to accept the Accord," Sarma said.

The NRC revision has been carried out in Assam as per provisions of the Assam Accord. A six-year agitation demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants was launched by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) in 1979. It had culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985, in the presence of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.