Final NRC: 1 lakh Gorkhas excluded

Kolkata, Sep 02: Statiing that the Centre must ensure no genuine Indians are left out of the NRC, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said she was "shocked" to find out that one lakh people of the Gorkha community have been excluded from the list.

The TMC supremo insisted that "justice should be meted out to all Indian brothers and sisters".

"Earlier I was not aware of the full NRC fiasco. As more and more information is coming in, we are shocked to see that names of more than 1 lakh Gorkha people have been excluded from the list," Banerjee said in a statement issued by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leadership.

"In fact, names of thousands and thousands of genuine Indians, including those of CRPF and other jawans, family members of former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, have been excluded (from the list)," she said.

The updated National Register of Citizens (NRC), which identifies bona fide Indian citizens in Assam, was released on Saturday.

A total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied for inclusion in the register. Of them, 19,06,657 were excluded, a statement from the NRC State Coordinator's office said.

"The government must take care that genuine Indians are not left out and justice is meted out to all of our genuine Indian brothers and sisters," Banerjee added.

On Saturday, the CM had expressed concern over the exclusion of a large number of Bengalis from the register.

Dubbing the updated final NRC as a "fiasco", she had said it exposed those who are trying to gain "political mileage" out of the exercise.