No problems for Assam Gorkhas: There will be no new cases against the Gorkha community

Himanta Biswa Sarma

SNS, SILIGURI, 29 AUGUST 21 : Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that all citizenship cases registered against members of the Gorkha community in the state would be withdrawn, and that no new cases against them would be registered against them in the Foreigner' s Tribunals.

Mr Sarma was in Siliguri to meet family members of former Assam MLA Aloke Kumar Ghosh, who died recently, at their Lake Town residence in Siliguri in a whirlwind tour today.

"There will be no new cases against the Gorkha community. We have already declared Gorkhas living the tribal belts and blocks a protected class and decided to drop all the cases registered against them in the Foreigner's Tribunals. There is absolutely no issue now," Mr Sarma told reporters here.

According to him, there were only 12 Bengali Hindu persons at present in the detention camp for illegal immigrants and that the process was underway to release them too.

"Things will be quite normal in the next two-three months," Mr Sarma added.

Detention centres have been set up in Assam to house people who did not make it to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which was updated in the state in 2019.

The Assam government had in luly announced the status of the Gorkhas living in four districts-Kokrajhar, Chirang Baksa and Udalguri--in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).

Sources said there were around 25 lakh Gorkhas in Assam, of whom around 3.5 lakh resided in the BTR, and most of whom migrated to Assam during the British rule.

As Assam published the updated NRC list in August 2019, more than 1.9 million applicants had found that their names were missing in the list. They were then asked to file appeals in several Foreigners Tribunals set up across Assam.

Reports earlier said that around 1.5 lakh Gorkhas were then out of the NRC list, while there had been widespread protests against the move.