A former National Register of Citizens (NRC) state coordinator on Tuesday sought the “personal intervention” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the re-verification of the updated but yet-to-be-notified NRC in Assam.
Hitesh Dev Sarma, in a four-page letter to Modi, has sought “appropriate action for re-verification of the NRC published so far”.
Sarma, the former NRC state coordinator, has also sought a probe by the Enforcement Directorate into the “financial irregularities” during the NRC updation exercise. An inquiry by the NIA “to probe if any foreign money was involved in the process to pave way for the inclusion of foreign nationals’ names in NRC Assam” is already underway.
The NRC is a register of Indian citizens. It was updated to weed out foreigners illegally staying in Assam.
Influx is a sensitive issue in Assam which has seen the six-year-long anti-foreigner movement culminating with the 1985 Assam Accord with provisions for the detection, detention and deportation of foreigners illegally staying in the state.
Altogether 19,06,657 of the 3.29 crore applicants were left out of the NRC published on August 31, 2019.
Sarma pointed out four “anomalies” he had detected during the in-house checks. Firstly, lakhs of names were included under the original inhabitants category. In Chamaria Revenue Circle alone, 64,247 persons were included in the NRC “whereas hardly around 500 persons belonged to the original inhabitants category,” the letter stated.
Secondly, 13,18,639 names were included despite invalid documents, raising questions about certain vested interests.
Sarma also detected several errors in the data entry process. Out of 2,346 family trees, 943 did not match “but the recorded data did not reflect it”.
Finally, Sarma also found that a large number of actual Indians were not in the updated NRC.
The last date for entry into the NRC was March 24, 1971, according to the 1985 Assam Accord.
Sarma’s letter said he had apprised the state government and the Registrar General of India (RGI) of the “anomalies” within two months of his joining as the state coordinator in 2019.
