NGO files complaint against Assam NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela
Prateek Hajela, a 1995 batch IAS officer, was appointed by the Supreme Court to oversee the process in 2013.
The Assam Public Works (APW), an NGO, filed a complaint to the CID against former National Register of Citizens (NRC) state coordinator Prateek Hajela and others, accusing them of “manipulating” the process to include names of illegal migrants in the updated NRC.
"In collaboration with some officers of migrant background, data entry operators, some minority leaders and also with some anti-national elements... to insert the names of the illegal migrants in the updated NRC,”APW said.
Hajela, a 1995 batch IAS officer, was appointed by the Supreme Court to oversee the process in 2013. The apex court relieved Hajela of his duty in 2019 and transferred him to his home state of Madhya Pradesh, where he served as the commissioner of health services in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan led government.
"The inclusion of a very high percentage of illegal and doubtful persons' names in the NRC, leads to the suspicion that there have been manipulations in the family tree verification,” APW president Aabhijeet Sarma wrote in his complaint, reported PTI.
"The software for 'Family Tree Matching' was prepared by the then NRC State Coordinator in such a way that no superior officers could make any quality check," he added.
Hajela who graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi was removed from his duties by the Madhya Pradesh chief minister on ground of his ‘dereliction of duty during the Covid-19 pandemic,’
“Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan instructed immediate removal of Prateek Hajela from the post of commissioner, health services on his extreme carelessness towards his duties amid the Covid-19 pandemic”, said an official statement from the directorate of public relations.
