The process of issuing rejection slips to the 19.06 lakh people excluded from Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) is unlikely to start on March 20. The coronavirus pandemic is one of the reasons, officials said.
Other reasons include replacement of the bulk of some 55,000 Assam government employees engaged in the NRC exercise for five years and delay in scanning the speaking orders issued while processing the objections raised against the excluded during the updating process.
The State government had told the Assembly on March 2 that the rejection slips would be issued from March 20 after speaking orders were scanned. It had said that 12% of the speaking orders remained to be scanned.
The NRC authorities are also learnt to be segregating the names of some declared foreigners or doubtful voters who have made it to the updated list published on August 31, 2019. Their cases are pending in 100 Foreigners Tribunals across the State. The NRC authorities have declined to disclose the number of such people, but it is estimated that more than 1,000 people may have been included in the list “erroneously.”
To move Supreme Court
Meanwhile, Assam Public Works (APW), the NGO whose petition before the Supreme Court led to the NRC updating exercise in Assam, has said it would meet the heads of the Madhya Pradesh government, besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for “punitive action” against former NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela.
The Supreme Court had in November 2019 transferred Mr. Hajela, an IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, to his home State Madhya Pradesh. He has since been accused of having indulged in corruption during the exercise that the government said costs ₹1,348 crore.
“The investigating agencies have not recorded our statements despite a case filed against him days ago. We suspect the government is delaying intentionally for fear of getting exposed if the investigation is done. We will meet the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister in May and hand over the details of Hajela’s corruption during his tenure as NRC Coordinator,” APW president Aabhijeet Sharma said.
The APW had filed a case against Mr. Hajela, accusing him of tampering with data and records associated with NRC. The NGO has also been demanding total re-verification of the NRC applications for an “error-free” list.
Assam’s NRC was updated from its 1951 version and documents of 3.3 crore applicants were processed.
