Assam NRC data go missing from official website

All data of the final list of the National Register ofCitizens (NRC) has been made offline from its official website due tonon-renewal of contract with the IT firm Wipro, prompting the OppositionCongress to doubt it as a "malafide act".

The complete detail of exclusion and inclusion of bonafideIndian citizens in the NRC was uploaded on its official website'www.nrcassam.nic.in' after the final list was published on August 31, 2019.

However, the data was not available for the last couple ofdays and it created panic in the public, mostly among the people excluded fromthe list as the rejection certificates were yet to be issued. When contacted,NRC State Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma accepted that the data have been madeoffline, but refuted the allegation of any "malafide" intent in it.

"The cloud service for the huge set of data wasprovided by Wipro and their contract was till October 19 last year. However,this was not renewed by the earlier Coordinator. So, the data got offline fromDecember 15 after it was suspended by Wipro. I assumed charge on December 24".

He informed that the state coordination committee haddecided to do necessary formalities in its meeting on January 30 and wrote tothe Wipro during the first week of February. "Once Wipro makes the datalive, it will be available for the public. We hope that people will be able toaccess it in the next 2-3 days," Sarma added.

Reacting to the development, Leader of the Opposition inAssam Assembly Debabrata Saikia wrote to the Registrar General of India andrequested him to look into the matter urgently.

"It is a mystery as to why the online data shouldvanish all of a sudden, especially as the appeals process has not even starteddue to the go-slow attitude adopted by the NRC Authority.

There is, therefore, ample scope to suspect that the disappearance of online data is a malafide act. "Indeed, the deletion of data from the NRC website at a time when the appeals process is yet is starting, is prima facie a deliberate violation of the directive issued by the Hon'ble Supreme Court."

"This act also violates the rules pertaining to the NRC, which stipulates various processes post-publication of the NRC," Saikia wrote in the letter. The final NRC was published by excluding 19,06,657 persons.

A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants. After the earlier NRC State Coordinator, Prateek Hajela was released on November 11 following his transfer to home state Madhya Pradesh on a direction from the Supreme Court, Sarma was appointed in his place on November 9.

However, Sarma did not join immediately and went on a month-long leave after the Congress and other organizations opposed his appointment due to his alleged "highly partial and controversial" posts on social media.

"The data is safe and this is purely a technical issue. The previous coordinator did not renew the contract with Wipro, which expired on Oct 19. We have now applied for an extension and the data will be back up online soon": NRC State Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma @IndianExpress

— Tora Agarwala (@toramatix) February 12, 2020

As per reports, the NRC State Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma recently said that "The data is safe and this is purely a technical issue. The previous coordinator did not renew the contract with Wipro, which expired on Oct 19. We have now applied for an extension and the data will be back up online soon"