Pressure groups conducting checks to ensure “doubtful citizens” do not sneak in.

Pressure groups in the northeastern States adjoining Assam have stepped up vigil to ensure “doubtful citizens” excluded from the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) do not sneak into their areas.

On Monday, the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) checked the papers of 26 non-tribal people at an industrial estate in West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya. The union members found them working in some factories without possessing NRC documents.

“Some of the workers said they were in the NRC but did not carry the documents. The managers of the mills have assured us that the non-tribal people will be sent back to Assam and allowed to work only if they produce proof of their inclusion,” KSU leader Wanbhakupar L. Nonglait said.

The KSU team ‘detained’ four more non-tribal people from Assam without NRC documents working at a technical school in the district headquarters Nongstoin.

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Other tribal organisations such as Federation of Khasi Jaintia Garo People’s (FKJGP) and Hynniewtrep Youth Council too have stepped up vigil against “NRC-excluded” people from Assam, besides asking the State administration to set up check gates on vulnerable points of the Assam-Meghalaya border.

“The left-outs of Assam will never go back to Bangladesh. They will enter the neighbouring States and Meghalaya could be a haven for them. Besides asking our local units to be vigilant, we will be coordinating with the police to check illegal migrants,” FKJGP president Wellbirth Rani said.

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Echoes in Nagaland

The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) has demanded implementation of Inner-Line Permit (ILP) in Nagaland’s commercial hub Dimapur in view of the “sharp increase” in the “influx of non-locals” from Assam after the exclusion of more than 19 lakh from the NRC.

Dimapur is the only place where visitors or workers do not need to possess an ILP as per the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) 1873.

“The exclusion of Dimapur from the purview of ILP has made the entire Dimapur district, besides the city, a safe haven for illegal immigrants, posing a threat to the indigenous Nagas,” NSF president Ninoto Awomi said, asking its units along the Assam border to remain vigilant against NRC-rejects sneaking in.

The Central Nagaland Tribes Council has aired similar a apprehension about people not making it to the final NRC trying to infiltrate into the State.

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Meanwhile, the North East Students’ Organisation has demanded the preparation of Assam-like NRC in the other seven northeastern States.