The Assembly witnessed heated exchanges on the first day of its autumn session as Opposition legislators launched a scathing attack on National Register of Citizens (NRC) state coordinator Prateek Hajela for his “arbitrary” way of functioning.

Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha of the Congress said Hajela’s whimsical decisions had left many Bengalis out of the draft NRC, driving some of them to suicide. He demanded that the state government take action against Hajela.

Congress MLAs were also critical of Hajela for suggesting to the Supreme Court that five of the 15 admissible documents for the claims and objections exercise be dropped.

“If the state government takes a resolution for Hajela’s removal, we will support it,” said Congress MLA Abdul Khaleque.

The state government, however, remained non-committal on the issue.

Parliamentary affairs minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said the NRC is being updated in the state with the Supreme Court monitoring the process and Hajela has submitted a confidential report in a sealed envelope to the apex court for excluding the five documents.

The minister said the state government has not yet been able to access the report since the Supreme Court has directed Hajela not to share any information pertaining to the NRC update with any executive, legislative or judicial authority of the state without taking permission of the court.

Patowary said K.K. Venugopal, the attorney-general, had stated that a copy of the report would be made available to the Centre but the Supreme Court said his request will be considered on the next date of hearing.

He said the state government has also urged the court to share the report “since law and order is a state subject and NRC is a very sensitive issue which could trigger law and order problems”.

BJP legislator Shiladitya Dev staged a protest outside the Assembly holding a placard, which read, “My Lord, do not discriminate your own children”.

Dev said the Supreme Court’s directive to Hajela not to share any information with the state legislature is “unfortunate”.

“If we do not have access to any information about NRC update, then what will we tell our people?” he asked.

He said the court order made him believe that the NRC update is not transparent.

“If the 1951 NRC will not be relied upon during the claims and objections, then what will be the validity of the updated NRC?” he asked.

Replying to a question by Aminul Islam of the AIUDF, Patowary said that altogether 4,55,976 cases were referred to foreigners tribunals up to December 2017.

Congress legislator Nurul Huda said that persons who were declared “not foreigner” by tribunals were subjected to unnecessary harassment by being served foreigner notices.

He demanded an end to such harassment of genuine Indian citizens in the name of detection of illegal migrants.

MLA Shiladitya Dev protests outside the Assembly. UB Photos