New Delhi: The contentious NRC issue came up for discussion at a meeting between Home minister Amit Shah and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday, with the latter seeking the Centre’s intervention to help those left out from the recent NRC exercise in Assam.
Ms Banerjee insisted that the Centre must help genuine Indian nationals belonging to the Assamese, Bengali, Gorkha and Bihari communities who were the worst affected by the NRC.
This was the first meeting between the Chief Minister and Mr Shah since he assumed charge as Home minister after the Lok Sabha polls over three months ago.
Talking to the media after the meeting, Ms Banerjee said she had raised the NRC issue with the Home minister, seeking his immediate intervention as a large
number of genuine Indian nationals had been left out and were in difficulty.
“Mostly people from the Assamese, Gorkha, Bengali and Bihari communities had been left out.
The Centre must examine each and every case and give them immediate assistance so that the issue can be resolved. The Home minister has assured me he would look into the matter,” she added.
Ms Banerjee said she had made it clear that there was no need for an NRC in her state, and so the issue didn’t come up at her meeting with the Home minister.
The names of over 19 lakh people were left out of Assam’s NRC, which was published on August 31.
Ms Banerjee said she had come to New Delhi after a long gap and meeting both the PM and the Home minister was part of a constitutional obligation.
She had raised the issue of renaming the state with the PM, and also invited Mr Modi to inaugurate the world’s second largest coal block in West Bengal in October.
“Since we have international border issues with Bangladesh and Bhutan and state borders with Bihar and Jharkhand, and also the sensitive Chicken’s Neck corridor linking the Northeast with the rest of the country, a meeting in that context with the Home minister was required,” she added.
