E-Paper
Sushmita Dev questions Assam foreigners’ tribunal notice to 80-year-old woman
An Assam foreigners’ tribunal sent a notice to 80-year-old Akol Rani Namasudra asking her to prove her Indian citizenship.
SILCHAR: Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal, Sushmita Dev on Sunday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioning an Assam foreigners’ tribunal’s decision to send a notice to an 80-year-old woman, Akol Rani Namasudra, asking her to prove her Indian citizenship.
In her letter, Dev also appealed to the central government to release the final National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Akol Rani Namasudra, a resident of Haritikar Part-1 under Katogorah assembly constituency, whose son killed himself after getting a D-Voter (Dubious voter or Doubtful voter) notice in 2012, received a notice from Foreigners Tribunal last month. The order issued by member (judge), Dharmananda Deb on February 23, asked her to appear before the court on March 5, 2022. She couldn’t appear on the first date of hearing and the court asked her to appear again on April 4.
“It is extremely questionable as to how the Assam police conducts inquiry upon people residing in Assam and on what basis. Maximum number of people issued with the notice by the Assam police are eventually found to be Indian citizens,” Dev wrote in her letter to the Prime Minister.
“In your speech in 2014, you said Arjun Namasudra is your brother, no Arjun will have to live in fear or commit suicide if you come to power. Now his mother gets same notice, in spite of the fact that her husband holds a citizenship card of 1956. I can only hope that your speech in the 2014 general election were not empty words,” Dev added.
The FT-4 notice against Akol Rani Namasudra said, “You could not produce any valid document before police during enquiry/verification regarding your citizenship within the stipulated period of time and on this ground, you are suspected to be an illegal migrant.”
Senior lawyer from Silchar, advocate Anil Dey has taken responsibility of presenting Akol Rani Namasudra’s case in the Foreigners Tribunal. He said it’s a matter of shock how Akol Rani Namasudra is asked to prove her identity when her son has proved it already.
Echoing advocate Anil Dey, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of parliament (MP) from Assam, Rajdeep Roy said that he is also shocked to know this. Talking to HT, he said, “When the family has already proven their identity, I don’t understand how this woman received another notice. Modi Ji himself assured us to protect this family, and now it is our responsibility to protect them.”
Sushmita Dev, who was MP from the Congress party and lost to BJP’s Rajdeep Roy in 2019 general election from Silchar constituency, joined the Trinamool Congress in August last year. She became a Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal later.
In her letter to Prime Minister, Dev also mentioned about pending NRC and appealed to him to ask Registrar General of India (RGI) to release the final NRC.
“Crores of people who underwent the process of updating their names in Assam and found their names included in the NRC have no clarity on the status of their citizenship and people who are left out of the NRC are also without a solution till date. Citizenship is a central subject and within the jurisdiction of the home ministry of the government of India and it is becoming extremely imperative to arrive at a solution for the state of Assam in this regard. I urge you to look into this matter and put an end to the harassment being caused to the genuine citizens residing in Assam,” she wrote in her letter to the Prime Minister.
