Guwahati, Oct. 31 (PTI): The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) on Thursday announced that it would launch agitation against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill across the region from mid-November.
After a meeting of its eight constituent member student bodies of North East, the office bearers addressed a press conference and said the bill should not be accepted by any of the states in the region.
“This is a communal bill and we are not going to accept it. This bill aims to give legitimacy to illegal immigrants, under which the region has been suffering for long,” NESO Special Coordinator Lurinjyoti Gogoi said.
From mid-November, protest will be organised in all the state capitals of the North East, he added.
“Besides, we also demand National Register of Citizens (NRC) in each of the states in NE. This will help identify the illegal immigrants here,” said Gogoi, who is also the General Secretary of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), which is a major constituent of the NESO.
NESO decided to demand for Inner Line Permit (ILP) in each of the North Eastern states and its members will launch a coordinated movement for this, he added.
Gogoi demanded Constitutional safeguards for all the indigenous people living in this part of the country.
“We are also against the new education policy, which emphasises usage of Hindi more than any other language. We want that local language should be given more importance,” he added.
NESO also made its stand clear against the proposed privatisation of Numaligarh Refinery Ltd, the region’s largest refiner.
Besides, the organisation opposed the merger bid of the NEEPCO with the NHPC as well as construction of big dams in North East.
“We have taken a resolution to demand a comprehensive economic policy for the development of the region. There should be an employment policy, which will give priority to local youths,” Gogoi said.
NESO called for utilisation of the natural resources to the fullest to generate more revenue for the region, he added.
The member organisations of the NESO are AASU, KSU, GSU, AMSU, NSF, TSF, AAPSU and MZP.
