Expecting a correct NRC for Assam
It’s worrisome to note that one more FIR was recently filed against Prateek Hajela, an IAS officer, who served as the State coordinator of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. He was appointed by the Tarun Gogoi government in 2013 as the NRC State coordinator following an order of the Supreme Court of India. The current NRC State coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma had lodged it with the Assam government’s vigilance and anti-corruption wing accusing Hajela and the system integrator (Wipro Limited) with other persons of engaging in corruption and money laundering while updating the 1951 NRC in Assam. For conducting the NRC updation process, Wipro (system integrator) was given the task of supplying data entry operators (DEOs). It was not permitted to subcontract any activities related to system design & development, deployment and enhancement of NRC software solution, data centre operation, etc. But Wipro engaged one sub-contractor for providing data entry operators without any prior approval from the appropriate authority. From the office record, it was found that the then State coordinator was aware of the fact that a sub-contractor was being used to provide DEOs’ though he did not officially approve the particular proposal, said Dev Sarma in his complaint. The Wipro was paid Rupees 14,500 to 17,500 per month per DEO (by the NRC authority), but ‘the DEOs got only Rs 5,500 to 9,100 per month’ during the years (2015 to 2019), added Dev Sarma asserting that the DEOs were denied even the least amount as per the country’s Minimum Wages Act.
Accountant General of Assam in a provisional audit report observed that ‘the difference of margin ranged from 45.59 to 64.27 percent was exorbitant and audit assessed that undue benefit of Rs 155.83 crore was allowed to SI/labour contractor after allowing 10 percent reasonable profit margin to the contractor’. Describing the undue benefit to the tune of Rs 155.83 crore, Dev Sarma asserted in his FIR that it’s a huge amount and it is reasonable to suspect that kickbacks and money laundering must have occurred in the process. Dev Sarma also mentioned that during his investigation it came to light that one Proloy Seal worked as a middleman in the whole process. Seal was neither an employee of the State coordinator’s office nor a contractor engaged by it. The provisional audit report also identified an ‘avoidable expenditure to the tune of Rs 10.73 crore’ in connection with the engagement of third-party monitoring consultants. As per the amended delegation of financial power rules, for the expenditure of more than Rs five crore, the then State coordinator should have obtained an approval from the empowered committee, headed by the chief secretary, or from the Registrar General of India. But the then State coordinator engaged the consultants without taking approval from the concerned authority, added it. Citing the same audit report, where it observed that ‘entire expenditure of Rs 10.73 crore made against the engagement of consultants was unjustified and avoidable which resulted in extra burden to the government exchequer and undue benefit to the SI (Wipro) to that extent’, Dev Sarma claimed that a large volume of government money was siphoned off in a fraudulent manner.
The supplementary NRC list, which was released on 31 August 2019 excluded over 19 lakh applicants as they could not produce valid citizenship papers. After the exercise, Hajela was transferred to Madhya Pradesh following an order from the Supreme Court. Dev Sarma, who returned back as the State coordinator in the office, recently lodged another complaint with the CID against his predecessor and a few others for deceitfully including names of suspected individuals in the NRC. The used software technology for NRC updating exercises was flawed and thus Hajela facilitated the entry of ineligible persons in the NRC, which Dev Sarma terms it was a criminal and anti-national activity. Assam deserves a genuine probe into all allegations raised by the present NRC authority. It is also expected that Dev Sarma would get an extension to his service as he is retiring soon, so that the process to have a correct NRC in Assam continues seamlessly.
Naba Thakuria
Editor-In-chief
News Bharati NE
