ITANAGAR, May 9:The Peoples’ Party of Arunachal (PPA) on Wednesday questioned the silence of state government on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 proposed by the Centre to grant migrants of six communities eligibility for citizenship in India.

Stating that already north east states like Assam and Meghalaya have started conducting hearing session through Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to gather opinion of stakeholders over the controversial bill, the PPA questioned why the Arunachal government is reluctant to invite JPC to the state.

“The BJP government must clear all these doubts because our state that is already in the grip of fear of refugees— Chakma and Hajong including Tibetans cannot accept any more burden of outsiders,” it added.

 Asserting that exercise of the national registration certificate is already going on full swing in neighbouring state of Assam, the PPA pointed that the work of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) at Assam would also affect Arunachal adversely.

The PPA raised concern that as a result of NRC exercise in Assam there may be possibility that discarded Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims might sneak into various districts in the state bordering Assam.

Terming the Bill as a threat to very existence of indigenous populace in northeast states, the PPA opined that main victim would be Arunachal which has common boundaries with many northeastern states and over the decades is bearing the brunt of large scale immigration from other states.

“Arunachal being the bordering state of Assam cannot be a mute spectator over this vexed Citizenship Bill and must come out with clear and concrete stand on the bill considering its future impact on the demography of the state and the right of the indigenous people of the region needs to be protected at any cost,” it pointed out.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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