Over 15,000 Bhojpuri speakers not included in Assam NRC

Guwahati: In what has intensified the demand for re-verification of the National Register of Citizens, more than 15,000 Bhojpuri speaking people having their roots in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but settled in Assam since 1950s are found to have been left out of the final NRC list.

Informing that a large number of people of such families settled on north bank of Brahamaputra in Darrang and Udalguri districts failed to incorporated their names in the NRC, the leaders of All Assam Bhojpuri Yuva-Chatra Parishad and All Assam Bhojpuri Sammelan said, “Despite submitting the requisite documents, thousands of Bhojpuri-speaking people living in Assam prior to 1971 and their descendants have been excluded from the NRC. It’s not only unfortunate, but also humiliating.”

The president of Bhojpuri speaking people Narendra Prakash Chouhan said that more than 4,000 people from Bhojpuri speaking families have been left out of the final NRC in Udalguri district alone. Mr Chouhan said that the ancestors of these NRC excludes were brought to Assam mainly for agricultural activities when Mr Rajendra Prasad was the President of India.

He cited specific cases like of Kanai Lal Chouhan, a 42-year-old farmer who hails from Uttar Barpukhuri village in Udalguri district. He has been left out of the NRC along with his three daughters, one son and two sisters. The names of Kanai’s grandfather Sukhanandan Chouhan and father Dudh Nath Chouhan was there in a court order relating to a land dispute passed on September 11, 1970 by the sub- divisional magistrate of Mangaldoi. This gave a strong reason to his family members to claim that their forefathers were settled in Assam before March 25, 1971 — the cutoff date for updating the NRC. But their hopes shattered when the final NRC was published on August 31.

“My mother and wife are Indians as they were included in the second draft and the final NRC list respectively. But our future hangs in the balance,” he said.

In another nine-member family, settled in Gerimari village near Mangaldoi town in Darrang district, six people made it to the NRC. But Madan Chandra Das head of the family along with his sisters Mamoni Das and Sumitra Das, have failed to make it to the final NRC published on August 31.

“Two of my brothers — Babul Das and Bipul Das — figured in the second draft of NRC last year. But we three failed despite furnishing the same legacy data of our grandfather Lal Singh Rabidas and other requisite documents,” said Madan Chandra Das, a government school teacher.

Similar was the fate of Mr Madan’s neighbour and advocate Ram Krishna Chouhan who failed to include the names of his brother Narayan Chouhan and sister Jolawa Devi. “Our family migrated to Assam in 1950s after the 1951 NRC was prepared. That’s why our family members applied for inclusion in the updated NRC. Government land records of 1947 and 1961 issued to our ancestor’s in UP was used for the purpose. Five of my brothers and two sisters got a place in the updated NRC, but Narayan and Jowala failed,” said advocate Ram Krishna.