Lost in translation: How many from Bihar were left out of NRC
2 min readGUWAHATI: At Tingrai, a tea producing area in Tinsukia 500 kms away from Guwahati, a group of people are gathered to discuss their non-inclusion in the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Most of them are originally from Bihar, their families having migrated to Assam a generation ago, and give one reason why they didn’t make it to the NRC – their pleas were lost in translation.
The legal documents which I have submitted belongs to my family who hailed from Muzzafarpur in Bihar,” says Mohan Kumar Shah, Tinsukia district president of the All Asom Bhojpuri Parishad(AABP). As it is a legal document of 1951, the script is in Devnagari and the language is Urdu.”
Not just him, most of the people from Bihar have submitted documents written in Devnagari script, and were told by officers during the scanning process that they were difficult to figure out as the language was Urdu.
These documents are submitted as proof that their ancestors are from Bihar and that the person belongs to the family.
Shah says that across Assam there are hundreds of people whose families have come here prior to 1950. “In British era people from Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand were brought by the British to work in tea estates and as construction labourers. While people working in tea estates have by and large made it to draft NRC, people from Bihar and other Hindi speaking people are left out.”
The Supreme court has earlier stated that updated NRC shall consist of names of all Indian citizens, including their children and descendants, who may have moved to the state of Assam subsequent to 24th March, 1971, if they produce satisfactory proof of residence in any part of the country (outside Assam) as on 24th March, 1971.
The names of 2,89,83,677 people were included in the final draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on July 30 and 4,007,707 people could not make it.
Several Hindi speaking people here have decided to meet Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and petition Home minister Rajnath Singh against the exclusion of such large numbers.
Courtesy: ET Bureau
