Hyderabad: Youths run signature campaign to stop NPR

Hyderabad: A signature campaign was launched on Friday by a group of youths to pressurise the Telangana government to act against the Union government’s Citizenship Amendment Act, National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register.

Youths took signatures from people leaving 15 mosques in the Old City after Juma prayers on Friday. The petition addressed to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao wants the government to pass a resolution in the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council against the CAA, and stay the implementation of the NPR in the state.

These legislations and procedures are unconstitutional and discriminatory and violate the constitutional rights of Indian citizens, the petition says. It requests the Chief Minister to intervene in the matter and challenge the constitutionality of the CAA in court to safeguard the democratic and secular fabric of the country.

The group said it had collected about 20,000 signatures on the first day in the prescribed format. They contended that though the TRS had voted against the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament, it was silent on the issue since, while the Kerala government has passed a resolution in the Assembly against the CAA and has challenged it in the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution.

S.Q. Masood, who initiated the signature drive, said, “We have launched a 10-day drive and plan to get two lakh signatures from people of different faiths and communities. We will be collecting signatures from places of worship of all faiths and from colleges.” He said, “We are not able to understand why the TRS is maintaining silence... on citizenship issues.”