Civil bodies want 1951 as NRC cutoff year

Representatives of a number of organizations including the Lok Jagaran Mancha, Assam Public Works (APW) and the Coordination Committee of the Tribal Organisations of Assam demands 1951 as the cutoff year instead of 1971 to identify the Indian citizens residing in the State.

Speaking at a citizens' convention organised by the LokJagaran Mancha, Assam on 'Error-free NRC', representatives of various socio-culturalorganisations and people from various walks of public life expressed disgust atmembers of the indigenous people being left out of the citizen registry.

Gauhati High Court's retired judge BD Agarwal said "1971-which is the cut-off year for the NRC update, has no relevance in the contextof Assam and India. 'January 26, 1950' is something we should go by,"

APW President Aabhijit Sarma has demanded a CBI probe intothe entire NRC update exercise, including an audit into the IT partners likeWIPRO and others.

"NRC Cut-off Year Should Be 1951, the interest of the indigenous people could be safeguarded only by this method." : Aditya Khaklari said.

Asam Sahitya Sabha president Paramananda Rajbongshi too emphasizedon the need for an error-free NRC. Advocate Bijon Kumar Mahajan, while dwellingon the issue, gave a detailed account of recent history and said that thesolution or the answer to the erroneous NRC lay in the legislative domain.