Guwahati: Former BJP MLA Shiladitya Dev on Monday demanded the immediate arrest of former NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela.
Dev asserted that he does not recognise the most recent NRC, which was released in 2019. He further asserted that by doing so, 80 lakh Bangladeshi Muslims were converted to Indian citizenship.
Additionally, he said Prateek Hajela had misappropriated NRC funding and should be the subject of an investigation by the CBI or ED.
Dev asserted that Hejela’s arrest will restore public confidence in the NRC.
“A new NRC should be published covering all of India to identify the Bangladeshi Muslims”, he added.
He asserted that all “Bangladeshi Muslims” should be identified and their right to vote removed using the new and updated NRC.
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) updating procedure in Assam was previously recognised as having significant anomalies by India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
The NRC updating procedure in Assam involves a “risk of data tampering,” according to the CAG.
It claimed that the data collecting and correction software development during the NRC update procedure may have been “improper,” leading to the abnormalities.
According to a CAG report, an audit found “several anomalies in the utilisation of fund[s],” including “extra and inadmissible payment to vendors.”
The CAG further stated that due to improper preparation, 215 software tools were added “haphazardly” to the primary programme used for the update effort.
“These were done without following the due process of either software development, or selection of vendor through eligibility assessment following a national tendering,” it added.