NRC tampered with during safekeeping: PBM

PBM alleges

*    NRC 1951 has been tempered with while converting it into digital format.

*    More mes included during the safekeeping of the NRC in the office of the District Magistrate, Kamrup (Metro).

*    The serial numbers of the origil NRC and that of its digitized format do not tally.

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, April 6: And now there is an allegation of 'foreigners' fiddling with the tiol Register of Citizens (NRC), 1951 while converting it into its digital format. The illegal alterations, according to the allegation, were made during the 'safekeeping' of the document.

The Probojon Birodhi Mancha (PBM), which brought this allegation, has appealed to Union Home Minister Rajth Singh, his deputy Kiren Rijiju and DoNER Minister Jitender Singh to get the allegation investigated by a Central agency like the CBI.

A missive to this effect was sent to the Union Home Minister and others by senior advocate Upamanya Hazarika, on behalf of the Mancha. The allegation, when viewed from the point of view of its serious ture, deserves an investigation by the CBI.

"We have been informed by reliable sources that state government officials have indulged in wholesale tampering of the origil NRC document of 1951, by insertion of mes in the origil register, after which it has been digitized, manually. After tampering with the origil NRC by entering new mes, which were origilly not there, such new mes have been given an official sanctity and thereafter entered into the digitized version by various data entry operators," the missive said, and added that this information was received from a few data entry operators who requested anonymity.

The allegation, if proved, will also prove that there is no safe place in Assam as the NRC has been allegedly tampered with during its 'safekeeping'.   

According to the missive, the serial numbers of the origil NRC of 1951 and that of its digitized version are not the same with respect to the origil undivided Kamrup district of Assam as modifications, alterations and additions have been carried out during safekeeping of the 1951 NRC in the office of the District Magistrate, Kamrup (Metro) by Sharifuddin Ahmed, head assistant, NRC Cell.

According to the letter, this apparently can be noticed as (1) new ink quality differing from the origil inks can be seen in the alterations carried out, (2) new additions have been made by giving sub-numbers like a, b, c etc., in particular serial numbers where modifications have been made, (3) in some pages the vacant spaces at the bottom ends have been filled up later by including up to 10 additiol mes.

"The above instance, if true, is a very serious one and relates to only a few areas, doubtless other areas may have also been tampered with, as it shows the involvement of Assam Government officials in including mes of foreigners in the origil NRC," the letter said, and called for a thorough investigation by a central investigative agency like the CBI.