GUWAHATI: Hitesh Dev Sarma, the former state coordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, has raised serious concerns over alleged irregularities in the NRC updating process.
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (June 18), Sarma highlighted grave anomalies in the NRC update process that he claims could compromise national security.
“I found to my utter surprise that there were so many errors in the NRC updation process, which could jeopardize the security of our nation,” Sarma wrote in his letter.
He pointed out significant discrepancies, including the inclusion of “lakhs of names of persons” who were not originally residents of Assam but were incorrectly registered as such in the updated NRC.
One of the most alarming revelations from Sarma’s communication is regarding the verification process.
He noted that “13,18,639 names were included in NRC where these persons’ documents were not valid as per reports of the issuing authorities”.
Sarma alleged that these inclusions were facilitated through a flawed verification process without proper oversight, raising serious questions about the integrity of data entry and inclusion criteria.
Sarma also accused his predecessor, Prateek Hajela, of serious misconduct during his tenure as Assam state coordinator of NRC.
“Sri Hajela did not allow any quality-check of those results by the superior officers in the Family Tree Matching verification process,” Sarma claimed.
He further alleged financial irregularities amounting to over Rs 260 crores, including misappropriation from the wages of data entry operators.
Expressing frustration over the lack of action despite his efforts to bring these issues to light, Sarma emphasized the urgent need for corrective measures.
“It took almost two years to make the Union Home Ministry believe that the current Assam NRC was faulty and it deserves re-verification,” he stated in his letter.
Sarma urged Prime Minister Modi to personally intervene and initiate several actions. These include petitioning the Supreme Court for the re-verification of the NRC, directing the Enforcement Directorate to investigate financial irregularities, and tasking the National Investigation Agency to probe if foreign funds influenced the inclusion of ineligible names.