CAG detects anomalies in updating NRC for Assam

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has detected large scale anomalies in updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam, the report of which was tabled in the state assembly on Friday.

Updating of the 1951 NRC for Assam was done under directions of Supreme Court in order to detect illegal citizens who had entered the state after March 25, 1971. The final NRC list published in August 2019 had left out 1.9 million of the 33 million applicants on suspicion of their claims as Indian citizens.

“In NRC updation process, a highly secure and reliable software was required to be developed; audit, however, observed lack of proper planning in this regard to the extent of 215 software utilities were added in a haphazard manner to the core software,” the CAG for the year ending March 31, 2020 observed.

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It added that these were done without following due processes of either software development, or selection of vendors through eligibility assessment following national tendering.

“Haphazard development of software and utilities for NRC data capture and correction posed the risk of data tampering without leaving any audit trail. The audit trail could have ensured accountability for veracity of NRC data,” the CAG report stated.

“Thus, the intended objective of preparing a valid, error-free NRC has not been met despite direct expenditure of ₹1,579.78 cr as well as manpower cost of development of a large number of government servants ranging from 40,000 to 71,000,” it added.

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The report also highlighted the escalation of project cost in the process from ₹288.18 cr in 2014 to ₹1,602.66 cr (when the process was completed in 2019) due to time overrun and significant change in scope of the initially conceptualised NRC updation software.

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.

It also suggested penal action against systems integrator (M/S Wipro Limited) for violation of 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 of MW Act.

“We had been waiting for the report of CAG with regards to irregularities in NRC updation process. Now that the report has been submitted, we will take a call on the next course of action,” chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told journalists.

Within weeks of the NRC list getting released in August 2019, Prateek Hajela, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who was the state NRC coordinator at that time and had overseen the entire exercise was transferred to his parent state Madhya Pradesh following instructions of the Supreme Court, which was monitoring the NRC process.

The final NRC has been rejected as incorrect by the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government stating that 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.

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

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 foreigners’ tribunals seeking inclusion as citizens.

In May this year, Hajela’s successor as state coordinator of NRC Hitesh Dev Sarma lodged a police case against his predecessor alleging treason for intentionally allowing irregularities in preparing the list which resulted illegal migrants to register their names as Indians.

According to Sarma, Hajela knowingly disobeyed law, wilfully avoided proper quality checks in the process of updating NRC and allowed declared foreigners, doubtful voters and their descendants to enlist their names.

Terming this as anti-national activity, which could threaten India’s security, Sarma lodged a case against Hajela and some other officers with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Assam police under Sections 120B, 166A, 167, 181, 218, 420 and 466 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

“We had stated even before publication of final NRC that Hajela was involved in irregularities. Now the CAG has officially acknowledged the anomalies and corruption,” said Abhijeet Sharma of Assam Public Works (APW), a Guwahati-based NGO whose petition in the Supreme Court set the NRC updating exercise rolling. The NGO has also filed three cases of irregularities and corruption against Hajela.