GUWAHATI, Sept 8: Leader of the Opposition in the Assam assembly Debabrata Saikia has accused the state coordinator for the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Prateek Hajela, of misleading the Supreme Court by excluding some vital documents from the list of papers allowed to back up claims and submissions made by applicants, even as the Assam Public Works (APW) has decided to move apex court for formation of a monitoring committee to oversee the entire the process of final NRC.

“We had full faith in him. But the NRC exercise is not going on properly,” said Saikia, a senior Congress leader, demanding action against Hajela.

The NRC exercise has come under criticism since the complete draft was published on July 30, excluding four million applicants.

A recent submission by Hajela to the Supreme Court on the list of documents which could be submitted afresh in the claims and objections phase of the exercise has vexed some groups.

The list of 10 documents excludes some which were in the ‘List A’ including legacy documents—the 1951 NRC, voters’ lists up to March 25, 1971—citizenship certificate and refugee registration certificate. Assam Public Works, the main petitioner of the NRC welcomed the submission, saying it will lead to a correct NRC.

On the other hand, the APW president, Abhijeet Sharma said that there were largescale of anomalies in the NRC updating as the names of a large number of illegal immigrants appeared the final draft.

“NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela admitted in the apex court that, there were reports of some cases of buying and selling of legacy data. The Morigaon deputy commissioner also admitted that, 39 suspected illegal foreigner families name were included in the final draft of NRC. It is proved that, there were a large number of anomalies in the NRC updation process,” Sharma said.

The APW alleged that the Registrar General of India was aware of everything as how the names of illegal immigrants appeared in the draft NRC. They knew how the legacy data was sold, but he didn’t take any action, Sharma alleged.

The APW has submitted a memorandum to state NRC coordinator suggesting him for scrutiny of NRC based on residency check as per directive by the apex court.

Shiladitya targets Hajela

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Shiladitya Dev, who had been vocal for quite some time regarding the updating of NRC on Saturday fired salvos Hajela.

Dev questioned Hajela’s integrity since he was appointed as NRC coordinator during the Congress regime.

“He (Hajela) was recruited by the Congress, a party that we all know is the reasons why thousands of Bangladeshis have entered Assam to serve as their vote-bank. The moment Hajela was recruited Muslim fundamentalist organisations has started rejoicing,” Dev said in a press conference here Saturday.

He also alleged Hajela of “manipulating” the procedure of NRC update.

He also reiterated his demand for the transfer of Hajela and asked the government to appoint somebody else in his place.

No Indians to be excluded from NRC: Rajnath

Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday assured that no Indian national would be excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC), PTI adds from New Delhi.

Addressing the Northeast Students’ Festival here to welcome new students from the region to Delhi, Singh said the NRC was necessary to identify Indian citizens and weed out illegal immigrants. “I want to say that no genuine Indian will be excluded from the NRC,” he said at the event organised by ‘My Home India’, an NGO founded by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sunil Deodhar.

“It is absolutely necessary to know who are Indians and who are foreigners,” said Singh as he asserted that the update of the NRC, a list of Assam’s citizens, was carried out under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court.

Deodhar was the BJP in-charge in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi during 2014 Lok Sabha elections and a key architect of BJP’s victory in last assembly elections in Tripura.

The updating of NRC is aimed at identifying illegal immigrants in the state that borders Bangladesh was carried out in Assam following a decision in 2005 after a series of meetings between the central and state governments and the influential All Assam Students’ Union (AASU).

Assam, which faced influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC, first prepared in 1951.

News Source The Hill Times