GUWAHATI: Assam government will withdraw all pending prosecution relating to Gorkhas from different Foreigners Tribunals of the state.
This was decided in a meeting of the state cabinet here on Wednesday.
The state cabinet also decided not to prosecute any Gorkha citizens under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 1955.
As many as 1 lakh people belonging to the community have been excluded from Assam’s final National Register of citizens (NRC).
The number of exclusions has come down from the draft NRC. Of the 1 lakh Gorkhas in the reject list, about 20,000 are facing D (doubtful) voters cases, while others have been hit by surname mismatch.
Sahitya Akademi award winner and Assam Nepali Sahitya Sabha president Durga Khatiwada and his children have been included, founding member of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee Chhabilal Upadhyay’s granddaughter Manju Devi has been left out along with her two children.
Four organisations – the All Assam Gorkha Students’ Union, the Assam Nepali Sahitya Sabha, the All Assam Gorkha Sammelan (AAGS) and the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha (BGP) had announced that under no circumstances would Gorkha people be excluded from the final NRC, and they would approach the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) to appeal against their exclusion.
A few days back in July, the state government recognized the Gorkhas as a protected class in Sadiya Tribal Belts.
In 1997, during an intensive revision of electoral rolls, the Election Commission had ordered that the letter ‘D’ be written against the names of voters who allegedly failed to prove their citizenship.
Their cases were referred to the Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs) in the state. A person declared as a ‘D’ voter is not given the elector’s photo identity card and is barred from casting his/her vote. As many as 23,000 Gorkhas are still believed to be carrying the ‘D’ voter tag in the state.
In addition to this, the cabinet also decided to hold a special TET for filling up 1464 posts reserved for ST (Hills) in the education department.
The special TET will be held for recruitment in Bodo, Garo and Manipuri medium institutions.
The cabinet meeting also decided to appoint former MP Ramen Deka as co vice chairman of SITA and he will be accorded a cabinet rank.
The cabinet also came to the decision that the land pattas provided to indigenous landless people in the state will be made myadi pattas from the day of allotment. Those possessors will not be able to transfer or sell these lands for 15 years.
It was also decided that from now onwards, no permission will be required from DCs for registration of purchased flats.
From September 1, the education dept will start the process of filling up the 22,921 sanctioned posts.
