Guwahati: Bus crash stalls 300-km dash for NRC review

GUWAHATI: A busload of "NRC re-verification" candidates forced to travel more than 300km to Assam's Golaghat district at short notice met with an accident a little before midnight on Sunday, leaving at least 24 of them injured.
The group's eleventh-hour dash from Kamrup to meet a deadline intimated to them only the previous afternoon was cut short by a dumper that crashed into the bus on the outskirts of Guwahati.
"The accident occurred when the driver of the dumper carrying bitumen lost control and rammed into the bus. Hot bitumen spilled all over the passengers, injuring almost all the passengers. Four of them suffered major injuries," police said.
Sariful Ahmed, one of those desperate to have his citizenship credentials re-verified for inclusion in the NRC, said from his bed at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital that the authorities informed them on Saturday that the hearings would be held at Khumtai in Golaghat district of Upper Assam.
" What are we supposed to do now? We were served summons to appear at Khumtai, which is more than 300km away, within a day. Then we met with an accident. We had pooled Rs28,000 by contributing Rs700 each to reserve the bus so that we could make it to the hearings on time. None of us did," Sariful said.
Till late on Monday, there was no confirmation that those who missed the hearings because of the accident would get another chance. "Since many of them were seriously injured, the authorities might reschedule their hearings or relocate the centres, depending on the situation. For now, we are just preparing a report to send to the authorities," said a government official in Golaghat.
State Congress president and Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah, complaining about the re-verification process. "Despite the state coordinator of the NRC informing the Supreme Court that 27% re-verification of the NRC draft had been carried out, the NRC authorities surprisingly issued thousands of such notices across the state. It has created panic...I urge you to intervene and give justice to Indian citizens," he states in the letter.