Former state NRC coordinator to face probe for alleged irregularities: Assam CM

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that Prateek Hajela, former state coordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), will have to face a probe for alleged irregularities committed while updating the register that was aimed to detect “illegal immigrants” in the northeastern state.

He said the Assam government has referred the case to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption.

“Hajela is a government officer. If he comes to Assam and doesn’t want to work, why will we pay him a salary? If he takes VRS (voluntary retirement scheme), he can. But when he is called to Assam by the police, he has to come. His case has been referred to the directorate of economic and vigilance [Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption] to officially register a first information report (FIR) against him,” the CM said on Wednesday.

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Hajela, a native of Madhya Pradesh and a 1995 batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, was appointed the NRC coordinator by the Supreme Court in 2019 to oversee the exercise of finalising and publication of Assam NRC data.

However, within weeks of the NRC list getting released in August 2019, fearing a threat to the Assam NRC process, the top court directed the Centre and the Assam government to relocate Hajela to Madhya Pradesh for the maximum period possible.

Several cases against Hajela for alleged irregularities in updating NRC are already pending in Assam.

Last month, the Madhya Pradesh government relieved Hajela from his duties as principal secretary AYUSH department and directed him to join duties in Assam, his home cadre. Following this, there have been reports that the senior officer could take VRS instead of working in Assam.

Himanta has has said that Hajela opting to take VRS and the investigation into the alleged irregularities committed by him, are two separate issues.

“If he comes to Assam, which department will we give him to handle? He is already tainted and if we give him responsibility, we will get blamed for assigning duties to Hajela. It won’t benefit us. If he really gets VRS, it will be a victory for the Assamese people.”

The Assam CM further thanked Abhijeet Sharma of Assam Public Works (APW), a Guwahati-based NGO, for relentlessly pursuing alleged irregularities committed by Hajela during his tenure as state coordinator for NRC.

A PIL by APW in the Supreme Court seeking to update the 1951 NRC for Assam had set the ball rolling for the process to update data of citizens and illegal immigrants in the state.

In its report released in December last year, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India detected large-scale anomalies in updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam.

The CAG recommended fixing of responsibility of the state coordinator of NRC and action in a time-bound manner for the excess, irregular and inadmissible payment made to the vendor.

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It also suggested penal action against the systems integrator (M/S Wipro Limited) for violation of the Minimum Wages (MW) Act as payments were made to (data entry) operators at a rate less than minimum wages. The report sought accountability from the state coordinator NRC for not ensuring compliance with MW Act.

The final NRC has been rejected as incorrect by the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government stating it “had many anomalies and left out eligible persons and included illegal immigrants.” The Assam government has since approached the Supreme Court seeking a review of the entire exercise.

It has been alleged that Hajela intentionally avoided the re-verification of all the more than 60,000 people despite a complaint and his act should be treated as “treason for doing an activity which is likely to threaten national security”.

Several local groups and organisations in Assam have also rejected the list and approached the top court for review. All those petitions are pending before the apex court at present.

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Meanwhile, the NRC list is yet to be notified by the Registrar General of India, leading to a long wait by those left out of the list to file appeals before the Foreigners Tribunal seeking inclusion as citizens.

The much-awaited updated final NRC was released on August 31, this year excluding names of over 19 lakh applicants in the state. The 1951 NRC for Assam was updated under the directions of the Supreme Court in order to detect illegal citizens who had entered the state after March 25, 1971.

A total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC. Of them, 3,11,21,004 have been included in the document and 19,06,657 were excluded.