No End To NRC Assam Controversy
By
Nava Thakuria, New Age Islam
21 July
2023
As one more
first information reports (FIR) was lodged against the corruption and money
laundering by concerned officials while updating the National Register of
Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the petitioner,
Gitika
Bhattacharya, a Guwahati-based social worker, in her complaint at Dispur police
station demanded legal actions against the government officials along with the
private parties as well as some individuals, it added more dimensions to the
controversy. The complaint, received on 13 July 2023, also categorically
highlighted the matter of exploitation to nearly 8000 contractual workers, who
were denied legalised monthly salaries during the process of NRC updation in
the north-eastern State of India.
It was in
fact the fifth FIR, lodged before Assam Police, against the former NRC State
coordinator, Prateek Hajela, who was appointed to look after the massive
exercise under direct monitoring of the Supreme Court of India engaging 50,000
government employees and a few thousands of contractual data entry operators
(DEOs). The NRC updation process began in 2014 and culminated with the
publication of a final draft in 2019, but that is yet to be endorsed by the
Registrar General of India.
Earlier,
alleging corruption by Hajela and also inclusion of a large number of illegal
Bangladeshi migrant’s names in the NRC draft, the senior officer’s immediate
successor Hitesh Devsarma filed two complaints before the Assam CID on 19 May
2022 and State vigilance & anti-corruption on 13 June 22. Devsarma was
followed by Aabhijeet
Sharma
(lodging an FIR in Paltan Bazar police station on 14 October 22) and Luit Kumar
Barman (filed another complaint in the same police station of Guwahati on 19
Oct 22). But not a single FIR has been registered, even though the Comptroller
and Auditor General of India (CAG, the highest audit body of world’s largest
democracy) also recommended penal actions against Hajela.
Demanding a
complete reverification of the NRC draft and also appropriate actions against
all the individuals who were involved in intentional inclusion of illegal
people's name in it, the Bharat Raksha Manch (Save India Forum, a
non-government organisation) emphasized on a correct NRC for Assam and
punishment against the guilty individuals involved in money laundering to the
tune of Rs 2600 million. Submitting a memorandum to Assam Governor at Raj
Bhawan, the nationalist forum appealed to him for pursuing the NRC issue with
the Union government in New Delhi. Governor Gulab Chand Kataria was also urged
by the delegation, led by Suryakanta Kelkar and Dwijendra N Barthakur, to
initiate an affidavit to be filed by the State government before the apex court
seeking its reverification.
Assam
anti-migrants agitation (1979 to 1985) to identify and deport the illegal
foreigners culminated with an accord with the federal government (in presence
of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi) where influx up to 24 March 1971 was
unfortunately resolved to get regularized. But the illegal immigration from the
present-day Bangladesh continued and currently the indigenous people of Assam
are on the verge of being minority in their homeland.
Patriotic
People’s Front Assam, a forum of nationalist citizens, also demanded that the
DEOs should be awarded the outstanding amount of money by the concerned
authorities. The NRC authority spent a sum of Rs 1600 crore in the four-year
long exercise where the system integrator (Wipro Limited) had the
responsibility to supply DEOs, but it engaged one sub-contractor (Integrated
System and Services) which paid a DEO Rs 5,500 to 9,100 per month (shockingly
it’s below the country’s basic minimum wages).
Months
back, social media users named and shamed three city-based television
editor-journalists as the beneficiaries of the NRC scam.
One can
remember, these scribes shamelessly praised Hajela as an extraordinary officer
and pronounced the draft as best one for
the Assamese community. The latest FIR has mentioned about some other persons
(besides Hajela), who might be involved in the scam.
Nonetheless,
the DEOs must be offered their dues according to the laws irrespective of the
fate of NRC for Assam (whether it is accepted, re-verified or rejected). Their
cumulative dues will be over Rs 1000 million, which is still in somebody’s pockets.
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Nava Thakuria is a northeast India-based
professional journalist who is an engineering graduate.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/nrc-assam-controversy/d/130263
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