Why Not National Register of Citizens (NRC) Across Bharat
By
Nava Thakuria, New Age Islam
18
September 2023
Even though
the outcome and experience of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) updation
process in Assam turned sour, a national forum insists on updating the NRC with
the base year of 1951 across Bharat.
The forum,
Bharat Raksha Manch (BRM), has made it a mission to increase awareness among
common people about the nationwide NRC for a better future for the nation.
Recently, it announced a protest demonstration to be organised on 2 October in
various parts of the country to raise its demand for a correct NRC to Assam.
The NRC
updation process (May 2014 to October 2019) in Assam ended with a number of
controversies involving the unabated money laundering (to the tune of Rs 260
crore), inclusion of illegal foreigners’ names in the draft and also
deprivation of basic minimum wages to nearly 7000 temporary workers, who were
associated with the process as contractual data entry operators (DEOs). As
understood, the entire process was monitored by the Supreme Court of India, but
DEOs remain clueless why they are still deprived of their due monthly salaries
till date.
By now, the
fifth first information report was lodged against the former State NRC
coordinator, Prateek Hajela, who was appointed to look after the massive
exercise involving 50,000 government employees and the DEOs. Petitioner Gitika
Bhattacharya in her complaint cited a report of the Comptroller and Auditor
General of India (CAG), where the highest national audit body recommended penal
actions against Hajela, who was recently accorded with the VRS from Assam
government, and also the system integrator (Wipro limited). She also
highlighted the matter of exploitation to the DEOs in the police complaint.
Earlier,
alleging a massive corruption by Hajela and also inclusion of a large number of
illegal Bangladeshi migrant’s names in the NRC draft, his immediate successor
Hitesh Devsarma filed two complaints before the Assam CID and State vigilance
& anti-corruption department during his tenure as the State NRC
coordinator. Devsarma was followed by Aabhijeet Sharma (Assam Public Works
president, who is the key petitioner on Assam NRC in the apex court) and Luit
Kumar Barman (a businessman turned filmmaker turned a vivid social media user)
to lodge two separate complaints over the NRC malpractices.
The NRC
updation process for Assam began in 2014 and culminated with the publication of
a final draft in 2019, which is yet to be endorsed by the Registrar General of
India. Even though it was an opportunity to detect illegal Bangladeshi migrants
in Assam, the exercise failed miserably. More shockingly, the NRC updation
authority had to face the allegation of entertaining illegal migrants through
the intentional software manipulation, where Hajela took the lead. However, the
same bureaucrat was recently granted an early retirement by the State
government.
Months
back, the Patriotic People’s Front Assam claimed that the authority spent a sum
of Rs 1600 crore in the exercise where the system integrator had the
responsibility to supply DEOs, but it engaged one sub-contractor (Integrated
System and Services), which paid a DEO only Rs 5,500 to 9,100 (per month per
person). Some of the DEOs approached the State labour commissioner and many
came to the street demanding their dues, but nothing happened in their favour.
BRM, which
submitted a memorandum to Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria urging him to
pursue the NRC issues with the Centre, repeated again to insist on its demand
for a correct NRC and punishments to Hajela. The organisation claimed that
Hajela was personally engaged with the scam involving Rs 260 crores in the NRC
updation.
There are
speculations that at least three Assamese news channel editors were also
involved with the NRC updation scam. It is learnt that a large sum of money,
meant for the DEOs, were fraudulently grabbed by a powerful group comprising
the television anchor-journalists. During the process of NRC updation, they
tried to project Hajela as an extraordinary bureaucrat. Moreover, any report
against the process was discouraged by them terming it as a fit case for
defamation because the process was monitored by none other than the SC.
A matter of
great concern and shame indeed!
---
Nava Thakuria is a northeast India-based
professional journalist who is an engineering graduate.
URL: https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/national-register-citizens-nrc-bharat/d/130696
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism