Bengali umbrella body demand CBI probe into NRC legacy data ‘selling’

The Bengali Joint Coordination Committee, Asom, an umbrella body of 14 Assam-based Bengali organizations have demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into alleged “buying and selling” of legacy data during the updating exercise of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The Bengali Joint Coordination Committee, Asom, submitted while submitting a memorandum to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Friday, raised this demand citing NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela’s statement before the Supreme Court.

The memorandum said that according to Mr. Hajela’s statement, legacy had been made a commodity for trading in the process of National Register of Citizens.

The memorandum further said, “This implies illegal migrants had their names included in the NRC with such legacies or family trees in connivance with senior officials of NRC who verified the documents.”

It moreover added,“Legacy trading is a crime whose investigation should be handed over to the CBI so that the culprits are booked."

Members of the Joint Coordination committee had staged a demonstration outside the Assam Assembly. They asserted that that “irregularities” and “malpractices” have been committed in the name of NRC updating process which led to the names of more than 1.5 million genuine Indian citizens being excluded from the complete NRC draft published on July 30.

The committee alleged that the officials involved in exercise flouted norms and procedures in the absence of any monitoring and supervision in spite of an order by the Supreme court.

On September 26 the State Government said it wants “an error-free National Register of Citizens”, this was stated by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary in a statement on the floors of the Assembly. He also said that “the State Government in its affidavit to the Supreme Court had called for accepting 15 key documents in the claims-and-objection phase (of the NRC)” that commenced from Tuesday.

The crucial claim-and-objection phase of National Register of Citizens update began from last Tuesday following a directive from the Supreme Court of India towards that end. People were seen thronging various NRC seva kendras in the State and submitting forms on Tuesday. The process of submitting claims and objections, according to a directive from th e apex court, is to continue for 60 days.