Guwahati, Aug. 10: The Asam Sahitya Sabha today demanded that different indigenous communities, belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and More Other Backward Classes (MOBC) categories, along with the present and former tea garden workers, should be able to enrol their names in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) without providing any legacy data.

"There are provisions in the Constitution that clearly state who the original inhabitants of the state are and the Assam government has prepared the SC, ST, OBC and MOBC lists under constitutional provisions and provisions of other laws. The communities belonging to these groups are also issued caste certificates by the deputy commissioner or any official authorised by him. They are accepted as original inhabitants of the state and therefore, they should be able to enrol their names without providing legacy data," said Asam Sahitya Sabha president Dhruba Jyoti Borah.

The Sabha added that the head of a family, belonging to these communities, should also be able to get a caste certificate if the names of his family members and their relations with him were mentioned. "Instead of issuing several caste certificates for all the members, any gazetted officer should be able to issue one certificate to the head of the family," said Borah.

NRC update is the process of enlisting the names of the persons or their descendants whose name appear in either the NRC 1951 or any of the electoral rolls upto March 24 (midnight), 1971, and any of the 12 admissible documents.

The Sabha also said the names of those, who are original inhabitants of the state, but are not included in the SC, ST, OBC and MOBC lists, should also be included in NRC in similar manner. These communities include the Kalitas, Assamese Kayasthas, Assamese Brahmins, Assamese Daviagnas, Keot, Assamese Muslims, Nepali, Sikh, Rajasthani, Bengali, Odiya and Bihari. Legacy data is a key document to get enlisted in the NRC, being updated in Assam.

The Sabha had submitted a writ petition in this regard before the Supreme Court this year and the court passed necessary orders after hearing it. The Sabha today submitted a copy of the petition, along with the orders passed by the court, before the state nodal officer of NRC, Prateek Hajela.

"The state government should also extend the duration of filling up the NRC forms till October so that 100 per cent of the original inhabitants are covered in the process. The state government has estimated that 65 lakh families belonging to different indigenous communities reside in the state. But we doubt that there are many more such families and every one should be covered," said Borah. August 31 is the deadline for filing the application forms. The updated NRC has to be published by January next year.