Former State Coordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, Hitesh Dev Sarma on Tuesday penned a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, highlighting grave anomalies and alleged irregularities in the NRC updating process.
Sarma, a retired Home Secretary of Assam involved in the NRC project, expressed serious concerns over the integrity of the updated list, citing fundamental flaws that could jeopardize national security.
"I found to my utter surprise that there were so many errors in the NRC updation process, which could jeopardize the security of our nation," Sarma wrote. He pointed out egregious discrepancies such as the inclusion of "lakhs of names of persons" who were not originally inhabitants of Assam but were improperly registered in the NRC as such.
One of the most damning revelations from Sarma's letter is regarding the verification process. He highlighted that "13,18,639 names were included in NRC where these persons' documents were not valid as per reports of the issuing authorities." This, he claims, was done through a special verification process without proper oversight, raising questions about the motives behind these actions.
Moreover, Sarma accused his predecessor, Prateek Hajela, of serious misconduct during his tenure as State Coordinator. "Sri Hajela did not allow any quality-check of those results by the superior officers in the Family Tree Matching verification process," Sarma wrote, suggesting deliberate efforts to manipulate data entry and inclusion criteria. He further alleged financial irregularities amounting to over Rs. 260 crores, including misappropriation from the wages of data entry operators.
The former NRC Coordinator expressed frustration over the lack of action from authorities despite his efforts to bring these issues to light. "It took almost two years to make the Union Home Ministry believe that the current Assam NRC was faulty and it deserves re-verification," Sarma stated, emphasizing the urgent need for corrective measures to safeguard national security and the rights of indigenous people in Assam.
In response to these revelations, Sarma has urged Prime Minister Modi to intervene personally and initiate a series of actions. These include a petition to the Supreme Court for the re-verification of the NRC, an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate into financial irregularities, and a probe by the National Investigation Agency to ascertain if foreign funds influenced the inclusion of ineligible names.
The allegations raised by Sarma are likely to reignite debates over the implementation and integrity of the NRC in Assam, a contentious issue affecting millions in the region.