Guwahati: A citizens’ convention convened by 150 social activists and leading citizens and organised by social organisation Forum for Social Harmony in Guwahati on Sunday called for the NRC to be completed within a fixed timeframe, with proper documentation and the 2014 voter list used as the basis.While 19 lakh people from Assam remained excluded from the NRC, the convention said that excluded voters, based on 1971 as the cut-off year, were not given a rejection slip till now to complete the pending NRC process. “The government appears to intend to keep the NRC inconclusive to impose SIR in Assam,” said Parijat Nanda Gosh, activist and leading organiser of the event. He rued that thousands of crores of taxpayers’ money had been spent on an “incomplete NRC”.The convention demanded that the rejection slips be immediately provided by the NRC authority to the excluded 19 lakh people and that their claims be verified within a specific timeframe in the tribunal process, based on the revised 2014 voter list. “Tribunal process is not a well-defined mechanism, and it can be dragged on for years after years. Thus, the tribunals must adjudicate excluded people within a specific time-frame. SIR in no way should be imposed in Assam,” said activist Har Kumar Goswami.The final NRC should be published within a specific timeframe, the convention demanded.Eminent writer and advocate Arup Barbara said that citizens’ rights are being curtailed and spoke about the rising danger of authoritarianism under the present regime. Advocate Santanu Borthakur alleged that the incumbent govt is violating all sorts of legal provisions to forcibly evict the worker-peasant masses to serve govt’s interests. “Land rights and land pattas are a myth meant to hoodwink common people,” he said. Advocate Kishore Kalita, in his speech, delineated how the citizenship question and the eviction drive are correlated. “People’s rights are at stake,” Kalita said.Participating in the discussion, author and intellectual Padmalochan Nath, social activist Manoram Gogoi and ex-Jorhat Mayor Prashanta Bora highlighted issues related to the recent floods in upper Assam and the “withdrawal of the Kaziranga environmental protection cover”. They emphasised that the devastating flood was man-made, driven by the plunder of natural resources, and criticised govt for failing to provide adequate rehabilitation measures. Manoram Gogoi specifically pointed out that small markets of local products of Assam are now rapidly being replaced and captured by “outside products” and big businessmen.The speakers opined that Assam’s federal rights and the Indian constitutional structure are being rapidly dismantled through the centralisation of power in Delhi and the “politician-corporate nexus”.
