The National Register of Citizens (NRC) data which was reportedly inaccessible on the official website is back online after 10 days.
Hitesh Dev Sarma, the NRC state coordinator, confirming the development, told The Telegraph that “NRC data is available on the net from Friday night.” Though he did not elaborate, NRC sources said talks are on to renew the contract with Wipro.
A response from Wipro to The Telegraph’s request for details is awaited.
Sarma had earlier said the cloud service required to access the NRC related data was provided by Wipro, which was appointed as the “system integrator” for the project in Assam in 2014 after a “rigorous” tender process.
“Its term expired in October 2019. We have written to Wipro to resume the service,” he had said.
That the NRC data was inaccessible came to light on February 11 as “the authorities did not renew the service contract for the project after it expired in October 2019”.
The final NRC, published on August 31, 2019, saw the exclusion of the names of 19,06,657 applicants.
A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.
NRC sources also said the NRC coordinator has written to the deputy commissioners and registrars of citizen registration (DRCR) of all districts to share the details of “ineligible” persons who have been included in the NRC.
Sources in the district said Sarma written to the district heads on February 19. The letter had sought the details by February 20. A deputy commissioner told The Telegraph on condition of ano-nymity, “We have received the letter. But we have told the NRC authority that no wrongful or ineligible inclusion has been found in my district after verification.”
The subject of the letter was “regarding reporting of ineligible persons present in final NRC while referring to the raising of the matter in a video conference on October 31 last year.
Sarma wrote: “...it has come to the knowledge of the undersigned that after publication of final NRC on 31st August, 2019, few names of ineligible persons are found present in the final NRC particularly who are DV (doubtful voters), DF (declared foreigners), PFT (cases pending in foreigners tribunal), DVD (descendants of DV), DFD and PFTD.”
The memo, which is signed by Sarma, added: “A list of such persons has already been shared from your end... you are requested to share the details of such persons who are ineligible for inclusion in the NRC but whose names got included in the NRC in addition to the list shared earlier.”
The publication of the final NRC left the state BJP government and the NGO Assam Public Works (APW), the main petitioner, whose petition had led to the NRC exercise, “unhappy” with the list. They called it “incorrect” and demanded re-verification of the names.
Cabinet minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma had said last year in Guwahati that the state government had sought the rejection of the final National Register of Citizens published on August 31. The AASU had sought its re-verification.
