West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee raised concerns about the National Register of Citizens with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday, ANI reported. The two met at Shah’s office in the North Block a day after Banerjee met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and spoke about the proposal to change the name of her state, and other matters.
“I handed over a letter to him [Amit Shah], told him that of the 19 lakh people left out of NRC, many are Hindi speaking, Bengali speaking and local Assamese,” she said. “Many genuine voters have been left out. This should be looked into. I submitted an official letter.”
Banerjee said that the home minister did not bring up implementation of the database of citizens in West Bengal, and that she had already clarified her stand against it. The chief minister is a strong critic of the database of citizens, and has time and again said that she will not allow NRC to be enforced in her state. In Assam, over 19 lakh people were excluded in the final list of the register, which was published on August 31.
“Had a meeting with Amit Shah, hadn’t met him since he took over as the home minister,” Banerjee said, according to Hindustan Times.
In the meeting with Modi on Wednesday, the Trinamool Congress president said the demand to rename West Bengal as Bangla has been pending for a long time, and she was open to suggestions. She said people’s sentiments were attached to the name change. Banerjee also said she told Modi that the Centre was supposed to pay her state Rs 13.5 crore.
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