Mamata goes ballistic on Assam NRC, says Centre doing 'vote politics'
Kolkata, July 30 : Slamming the Central government on Assam's draft NRC which left out over 40 lakh people, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused the Narendra Modi-led government of doing "vote politics".
The first complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), comprising names of 2,89,83,677 people of Assam, was published on Monday and 40,07,707 have been left out due to some discrepancies in their documents, according to officials.
Banerjee also alleged people having Aadhaar card, voter identity and others documents were excluded as the authorities were "not satisfied".
She apprehended there would be problems in Bangladesh and West Bengal as it shares border with the northeastern state. The Bengal Chief Minister also alleged that the Modi government was trying to evict people "forcibly".
"Forty lakh people including Hindus and Muslims were left out. All connections including internet have been disconnected which is unfortunate. Why were connections cut? We are not able to contact them. Is it an attempt to bulldoze them? We suspect.
"It is a game plan to evict humanity and human beings forcibly and an attempt to isolate them in order to do vote politics. We do not believe in divide and rule policy," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat Nabanna.
She further said: "They (left out people) were made refugees by the Assam and central governments. Many people submitted all the documents. Yet, they were not considered, just excluded. Some of them are staying for more than 50 years."
Banerjee, who is going to Delhi for a slew of meetings, will seek appointment with Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
"I appeal to the Centre and Home Minister not to do politics there and consider them on humanitarian ground.The Central government can bring amendment and bills in Parliament to protect them."
The draft NRC was 'terrible' and people were helpless, she said, adding the left-out people were "not Rohingyas" and they are "very much Indians".
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11 more bodies retrieved from Arunachal accident site
Itanagar (PTI): Eleven more bodies were retrieved on Saturday from the deep gorge in Arunachal Pradesh's Anjaw district, where a mini-truck on which 22 labourers from Assam were travelling fell, an official said.
With this, 17 bodies have been recovered from the accident site, Anjaw's deputy commissioner Milo Kojin said.
He said three more bodies will be brought out on Sunday.
The operation, being conducted by a joint team of the NDRF and Army, resumed at 6 am.
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"The retrieval process was extremely difficult because of the treacherous terrain, and the gorge is very deep," Kojin said.
The operation was suspended around 4 pm due to low visibility and will be resumed on Sunday morning, he said.
"One person is still missing, and a search operation will be carried out tomorrow," he added.
The accident happened on the evening of December 8, around 40 km from Hayuliang towards Chaglagam in the district. On the evening of December 10, one survivor managed to climb out of the gorge and reach a nearby Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) labour camp, following which the authorities were alerted.
Six bodies were recovered from the gorge on Friday and handed over to their families on Saturday.
