GUWAHATI: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has detected largescale anomalies in the updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
In its report of 2020 submitted to the state Assembly on Saturday, the CAG said it was due to lack of proper planning that 215 software utilities were badly organized to the core software used for updating the document.
The report said a highly secure software was needed for the updation exercise but due process was not followed either for the development of software or the selection of vendors through eligibility assessment. The report said the “improper” software development, related to data capture and correction, had left room for data tampering.
The report further said that the project cost of Rs 288.18 crore escalated to Rs 1,602.66 crore due to time overrun.
Over 19 lakh of the 3.3 crore applicants were left out of the NRC’s “complete draft” published on August 31, 2018. It was updated when Prateek Hajela, an IAS officer, was its Coordinator. He is now serving outside the state.
Hitesh Dev Sarma, who succeeded Hajela, had filed two FIRs with the CID of police and the Vigilance and Anti-corruption Wing against the latter alleging corruption and money laundering.
Sarma on Sunday said he stood vindicated after what the CAG said in its report. He said the alleged corruption in the NRC updation process was of around Rs 260 crore.
“I had filed two FIRs. Unfortunately, none of them was registered. The government did not register the cases, possibly, due to some technical reasons. But now that the CAG has detected the anomalies, there cannot be any hurdles in registering the two cases,” Sarma, who attained superannuation in July, said.
He lamented that the Centre spent over Rs 1,600 crore to update the NRC of 1951 but the exercise failed to detect the illegal immigrants living in Assam.
“Lakhs of foreigners had managed to get their names included in the NRC. The government should order re-verification to ensure that the names of Indians, who were left out, are included and those of the foreigners deleted,” Sarma categorically stated.
The NRC was updated under the direct monitoring of the Supreme Court and in deference to the Assam Accord of 1985 which was signed between the Centre and the All Assam Students’ Union after a six-year-long bloody movement. People, who entered Assam after March 24, 1971, were not supposed to be included in the NRC.