Demanding Re-Verification of Assam NRC
By Nava Thakuria, New Age Islam
06 November, 2024
A thorough (100%) re-verification of the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam becomes necessary before its endorsement by the Registrar General of India (RGI), but a number of State-based organizations and civil society groups start demanding for implantation of the NRC Assam with no verification. After the verdict of the Supreme Court of India upholding the constitutional validity of Clause 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (which endorsed the cut-off date for granting Indian citizenship in Assam at 25 March 1971), their voices got amplified. But the conscious citizens continue questioning if the implementation becomes so urgent even if it’s not properly re-verified regarding the inclusion of millions of illegal migrants (read East Pakistani/Bangladeshi nationals) in the final NRC draft, which was published on the midnight of 31 August 2019.
The recent push by an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 forum for finalization of the NRC supplementary list needs to be discussed. The forum argued that the final draft was submitted to the RGI in 2019 itself, but it’s yet to be published. So there is no reason to keep the updated NRC in cold storage and hence the RGI should publish the updated NRC of 1951 for Assam (that kept over 19.06 lakh applicants out of the list) without further delay. The forum also claimed that all sections of population in Assam would be happy except those politically driven to oppose it. But it may be noteworthy that the Supreme Court on a direction on 13 August 2019 advocated for an appropriate security arrangement to NRC data before submitting it to both the governments in New Delhi and Dispur as well as the RGI, which is not yet materialised.
Moreover, the NRC updating process had embraced corruption and malpractices as detected by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, where the highest national audit body came out with the revelation that a scam of Rs 260 crore took place during the NRC updating process. The CAG even recommended penal actions against the former State NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela and Wipro limited, which functioned as the system instigator in the process. Hajela himself released the NRC draft on the midnight of 31 August after preparing it under ‘monitoring’ of the Supreme Court. But serious allegations were framed by Hajela’s immediate successor Hitesh Devsarma that tampered software was used in the process to incorporate illegal migrants’ names in the NRC in return of a huge volume of foreign money. It was also alleged that 6,000 temporary workers, who functioned as the data entry operators are yet to get their full salaries. Wipro limited received an average of Rs 14,500 per DEO every month from the NRC authority, it released only around Rs 5,500 per month (an amount below the legal minimum wages). The total volume of siphoned money is estimated to be over Rs 100 crore, which remains in the pockets of Wipro limited or its sub-contract Integrated System & Services till date.
The findings of CAG cannot be overlooked and hence all concerned individuals including some Guwahati-based television journalists, who shamelessly lobbied for accepting the NRC draft without any verification, need to be made accountable under the law. A number of individuals made it public through their social media posts that at least three television editors were involved in the corrupt practice during the NRC updating process. One outspoken talk show host even published a book praising Hajela's work as unparalleled and the other two dedicated multiple news based shows insisting that the NRC Assam needs no re-verification. For weeks, the social media users scolded the concerned editor-journalists for their corrupt and irresponsible mind sets.
Many civil society groups including the Patriotic People's Front Assam also called for a high-level probe into the matter. The PPFA also urged both the governments in New Delhi and Dispur to take decisive steps in identifying those fraudulent activities for the sake of national security and protection of indigenous communities in the region. Even after the pouring allegations, those media persons remain silent as if they had gone into hibernation. Their hibernation period is yet to be over and shockingly the responsible authorities continue to be ineffective in regards to those corrupt individuals. Most of the local media outlets are also shy of talking about the financial malpractices (reasons best known to them only). Nonetheless a high level probe into the matter becomes the need of the hour with an aim to punish the culprits who made money in expense of the national security as well as existence of the indigenous communities in Assam.
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/demanding-re-verification-assam-nrc/d/133633
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