Guwahati: Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) requests that the relevant authorities pay the outstanding sum of money to roughly 6,000 data entry operators (DEO) as soon as feasible in response to the upsetting news regarding the updating process of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. The forum of nationalist people also makes the case that those DEOs shouldn’t be denied their legal obligations owing to someone else’s avarice.
The group is adamant that the draught Assam NRC should be revised because millions of illegal residents live there, as Hitesh Devsarma, the former NRC State Coordinator, officially declared. Devsarma also asserted in two different official complaints that incorrect software was used in the procedure and a large financial swindle (to the tune of Rs. 155 crore) had occurred, all of which are mentioned in the interim report of the account general.
The NRC authority spent a sum of Rs 1600 crore in the four-year long process, where a large number of temporary workers (along with nearly 50,000 government employees) were also engaged as DEOs. The system integrator (Wipro Limited) had the responsibility to supply DEOs, but it allegedly engaged sub-contractors, where some media persons were also involved. Wipro was paid around Rs 14,500 (to 17,500) per month per DEO, but it provided only Rs 5,500 (to 9,100) accordingly.
“It is terrible that the DEOs were not paid even the minimal pay required by our country. The DEOs—some of whom approached the State Labour Commissioner and many of whom came to the streets to demand their dues—are still not receiving their full payments (which could total Rs 100 crore),” said a PPFA statement. It was also mentioned that there have been rumours linking three television journalists based in Guwahati to the financial irregularities.