'Absence of boss' hits NRC work in Assam

The remaining work of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) update in Assam has reportedly come to a standstill as the new co-ordinator, Hitesh Dev Sarma is yet to take charge, even six days after his appointment.

Sources in the office said the process to issue the "speaking orders" to those excluded from the NRC was affected due to the absence of the boss. The NRC office is required to issue the speaking orders to 19 lakh people citing the reasons for exclusion of their names from the final NRC list. Within 120 days from getting the speaking orders, the applicants can approach the foreigner tribunals to submit their claims and prove their Indian citizenship.

"Since there was a lot of confusion going on regarding the continuance of Prateek Hajela, we were waiting for a new co-ordinator. But the new co-ordinator has not joined the office yet. The process has come to a standstill as the co-ordinator can only sign the orders," a source said.

Sarma, a senior Assam civil service officer was appointed as the new NRC state co-ordinator on November 11 in place of Hajela, who was released for deputation to his home state Madhya Pradesh, as per an order of the Supreme Court.

Sources said Sarma took leave after many raised questions over his appointment citing his "communal and biased" posts on NRC on Facebook in the past.

Hajela invited anger from the ruling BJP, All Assam Students' Union and some other organisations, who alleged that the IAS officer failed to deliver an error-free NRC as many foreigners made it to the updated NRC while genuine citizens were left out. Hajela, who was earlier praised by these organisations, however, claimed that he had conducted the NRC work with sincerity and dedication.

Sources said Sarma did not join his duty as part of BJP government's plan to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill first before resuming rest of the work of the NRC exercise. The bill, that seeks to offer citizenship to non-Muslim migrants till December 31, 2014 has been listed for the winter session of the Parliament beginning on Monday