Bengali youth body petitions President Kovind on NRC

Guwahati (Assam), September 26, 2018:

The All Assam Bengali Youth Students’ Federation (AABYSF) has petitioned the President of India alleging that the state government was not following the notification of Union Ministry of Home Affairs on the Hindu immigrants from other countries.

The AABYSF said the MHA had issued a notification on September 7, 2015, stating that the Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, who had entered the territory of India from other countries without any valid documents, would be exempted from the Passport Act 1920 and Foreigners’ Act 1946.

Despite the notification by the MHA, the Assam government is still serving notices to the Bengali Hindus through the Border Police without prior investigation. Some are even thrown into the detention camps by branding them as foreigners and D-voters, the AABYSF said.

The memorandum sent to President Ram Nath Kovind said most of those declared foreigners were facing financial hardships and as a result, they could not bear the costs of attending the hearings of foreigners’ tribunal court.

The organization claimed the NRC updation process has many loopholes as evident from a person, enlisted in the 1951 NRC, termed as a foreigner.