NRC State Coordinator Office Turns Headless!!

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The crucial post-NRC publication phase has run into rough weather with the newly appointed State Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma is yet to resume his office and 19 lakh people excluded from the final list of NRC are clueless to proceed further due to non-receipt of Rejection Orders (ROs).

On November 9, the State Government had transferred Secretary of Urban Development & Finance Hitesh Dev Sarma and posted him as State Coordinator, National Register of Citizens. The development came after the government decided to release former State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela from the said responsibility with effect from November 11. The Supreme Court recently transferred Hajela to Madhya Pradesh inter-cadre deputation.

Even though Sarma was supposed to take charge as the new State NRC Coordinator from November 11, the ACS officer is yet to join in his new post. With former NRC Coordinator Hajela has already left the State, the Office of the State Coordinator of NRC, Assam has now become a headless organization.

Sarma was the Executive Director at the Office of the State Coordinator of National Register of Citizens for a few years. There are resentments and protests at certain quarters regarding appointment of Sarma as the new State NRC coordinator due to his alleged controversial comments on the update exercise in social media.

On other hand uncertainty reigns supreme as to when the State National Register of Citizens authority would issue the ROs for the more than 19 lakh of people who were left out of the final NRC. This is despite the fact that already two months have elapsed after publication of the final NRC on August 31, 2019.

Altogether names of 19, 06, 657 people were found ineligible for inclusion in the national register in Assam. These ineligible people will be able to appeal to the FTs (Foreigners Tribunals) for their inclusion in the NRC only after receiving the ROs, and that too within 120 days. A total of 3.29 crore people had applied for the NRC, of which 3.11 crore made it to the final list.

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