Large number of foreigners included in NRC list: Ex-NRC State Coordinator

Former NRC State Coordinator of Assam Hitesh Dev Sarma claimed that a large number of illegal foreign citizens' names were included in the last list of NRC which was published on August 31, 2019

Former National Register of Citizen (NRC) State Coordinator of Assam Hitesh Dev Sarma on Saturday claimed that a large number of illegal foreign citizens' names were included in the last list of NRC which was published on August 31, 2019.

"There were lots of mistakes and wrong entries in the NRC. A large number of foreigners were entered in the NRC list," Hitesh Dev Sarma said.

Talking to ANI, Sarma claimed that many people's names had been entered in the NRC as original inhabitants of Assam but they are not actually.

Sarma who was appointed as the NRC State Coordinator in November 2019 also appealed to the Supreme Court for re-verification.

"I had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court citing all the anomalies rampant during the NRC updating exercise. A large number of people's names have been entered in the NRC as original inhabitants of Assam, but they are not actually. During re-verification, around 20 lakh out of 24 lakh were re-verified and 13 lakh names were entered in the NRC database whose document verification result was no actual," Hitesh Dev Sarma further said.

He also said that the list which was published on August 31, 2019, was just a supplementary list.

"No third party was monitoring during the NRC updating exercise. The Supreme Court-monitored the system, but it was through Prateek Hajela (former NRC State Coordinator) only. When the executor and monitoring authority both are the same you cannot find a good result. The central government and state government were kept out of the whole system by the Supreme Court and they were asked not to interfere in the process. The list published on August 31, 2019, was actually a supplementary list of exclusion and inclusion of NRC," Sarma added.

He further said that the Assam government's appeal for re-verification of 20% in border areas and 10% in other districts was taken down by the Supreme Court. The state government is yet to file any affidavit seeking re-verification.

Earlier he had lodged two FIRs against former NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela - one is for procedural mistakes in the process and another one for financial irregularities.

Notably, the NRC list was published on August 31, 2019, and over 19.06 lakh people were excluded from the list for lack of documents establishing their Indian citizenship.

Hitesh Dev Sarma, then NRC State Coordinator had submitted the affidavit on December 3, 2020 before the Gauhati High Court and said that the final NRC is yet to be published by the Registrar General of India (RGI) as per Clause 7 of the rules under the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issues of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003 and the RGI is silent on final publication of the NRC.