One of the most effective ways for people in Assam to reach out for help is CJP’s Toll-free helpline. While, the CJP team in Assam is constantly on the go, the calls for help received on the toll-free number helps expand CJP’s reach.
On November 16, one such call came from a village called Baralimari No. 1, which is a riverine situated in a far-flung area in Nagaon District, under Juria Police station. The caller informed CJP’s District Volunteer Motivator (DVM), Faruk Ahmed, that a large number of people in his village were excluded from the NRC despite of having their legacy and linkage documents.
Now that the final NRC has been published, and 19,06,657 people have been excluded from the final list, CJP’s campaign has become even more focused. Our objective now, is to help these excluded people defend their citizenship before Foreigners’ Tribunals. For this we have already started conducting a series of workshops to train paralegals to assist people at FTs. We will also be publishing a multi-media training manual containing simplified aspects of legal procedure, evidentiary rules, and judicial precedents that will ensure the appeals filed against the NRC exclusions in the FTs are comprehensive and sound, both in fact and in law. This will assist our paralegals, lawyers and the wider community in Assam to negotiate this tortuous process. For this we need your continued support. Please donate now to help us help Assam.
Basis this information, Faruk Ahmed reached the village which has no road connectivity and the only way to reach there is by crossing waters in a small boat. After reaching there, one of the residents of the village, Abdul Khalilur Rahman said that after he was suspected foreigner, he had submitted linkage and legacy documents such as NRC of 1965, Voter list, Village head’s certificate and Voter id before the Foreigners Tribunal and had even attended 2-3 hearings with the same documents, yet he was Declared Foreigner by the Tribunal. Due to this reason, his name was also excluded from the final draft of NRC. Ironically, the names of his 3 brothers were include in the NRC on the basis of the very same documents that Rahman had depended on.
There are many other villagers with similar concerns, which are also being addressed by the CJP team in Assam.
Copy of Affidavit confirming Rahman’s name in 1970 voters list
Copy of Rahman’s Village authority certificate