Guwahati, Aug 31: The Assam Public Works (APW), an NGO whose petition in the Supreme Court led to updation of the National Register of Citizens, on Tuesday said it would move the Gauhati High Court over the alleged misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 360 crore by the office of the NRC state coordinator between 2014 and 2019. The financial irregularities were detected in the Inspection Report of the accounts of the NRC state coordinator’s office and they were committed when Prateek Hajela was at the helm, APW President Aabhijeet Sarma claimed in a press conference.
The NRC, an official record of bonafide Indian citizens living in Assam, was updated under the supervision of the Supreme Court and released on August 31, 2019, leaving out more than 19 lakh applicants. However, it has not been notified by the Registrar General of India. “We have been claiming since long that Hajela had indulged in various financial malpractices during the mammoth NRC exercise and had filed several cases against him with the CBI and CID in this connection”, he said.
Hajela, a 1995 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, had been appointed by the apex court as the NRC state coordinator in 2013. Sarma asserted that the Inspection Report for the period December one, 2014 to December 31, 2019, has confirmed the claims of APW. He also claimed that a file from the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) seeking permission to question Hajela was lying with the state home department for the last six months but no action has been taken so far.
“We appeal to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to take necessary steps in this matter,” Sarma added. The NRC updating process had begun in 2015 and the final list was published on August 31, 2019, with the names of 3.11 crore people included and over 19 lakh excluded.
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