‘Draft published mistakes’
Our Correspondent
Diphu, Jan. 3 (EMN): The Hills Tribal Leaque (HTL) has demanded republication of the National Register for Citizens (NRC) for Karbi Anglong.
HTL’s Convenor Khorsing Teron said during a press conference that the draft NRC published after midnight of Dec. 31 2017 was found to have a ‘major mistake’ in recording Karbi names as well as other tribal names such as Dimasa, Kuki, Rengma and other indigenous communities. So, it was demanded, the NRC for Karbi Anglong should be rectified and republished in English.
In this regard the HTL members submitted a letter to the deputy commissioner of Karbi Anglong in Diphu on Jan. 3, this was informed during a press conference held at the office of Thekar on Jan.3, Wed.
The tribal organisation will soon submit a memorandum to the National Registrat General of India in demand for rectification of the NRC draft in English, it was informed.
Teron said that Karbi and Assamese orthography was different for which pronunciation is also different; it should also be corrected. Whereas, he said, the NRC being a national record, it records names of Indian citizens. Incorrect records of names would seriously cause problems in the days to come to the persons in concern, he said. Many Karbi and other indigenous names ‘were mistaken,’ Teron said.
The press statement stated that the official language of the district was English and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC), in the year 1978, had adopted the Roman Script for the Karbi language. The Karbi Lammet Amei , apex literary body of the Karbis has adopted and accepted Roman script for writing Karbi.
Further English has become the most preferred medium of instruction throughout the district since the last few decades resulting to the increase in numbers of English medium schools and the number of schools converted to English as a medium of instruction.
Likewise, the number of literate and educated youths those who have acquired their instruction in English are also on the rise. The electoral rolls for Karbi Anglong are brought out in Assamese, and the Draft NRC is also published in Assamese for which the young literate and educated section of the district are facing problems including checking their names in the Electoral Rolls and in the Draft NRC or help checking others, publication of NRC in English is necessary, added the statement.
The organisation has appealed all members of indigenous tribes and communities of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao to take necessary steps to get their names recorded in the NRC correctly and to be vigilant that only genuine Indians are recorded in it.
The statement stated that Karbi Anglong’s deputy commissioner has been informed about the mistakes and has been requested to take effective steps to correct the names. The deputy commissioner is requested to take necessary steps to publish NRC in English, it added.
