GUWAHATI: The government of Assam formally registered a case against the former state coordinator of the National Registry of Citizens (NRC) on Wednesday. The case was registered against Prateek Hajela with the directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption regarding several financial discrepancies involved in the creation of the final draft of the controversial list of names.
This decision to register a case formally comes after the report from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. This report was generated after the IAS official applied for voluntary retirement from services at a time when he was scheduled to return to Assam after a three-year deputation period in a different state.
The Supreme Court of India ordered Prateek Hajela to deputation in Madhya Pradesh for a period of three years soon after the publication of the National Registry of Citizens in 2019. The exclusion of names of eligible people on the list was the start of this controversy.
Meanwhile speaking about the incident, Himanta Biswa Sharma mentioned that if the IAS official takes voluntary retirement from services, it will be a benefit for the people of the state. Mentioning that the case has been handed over to the concerned department, the chief minister added that a total of five FIRs were lodged against Prateek Hajela over several anomalies in the National Registry of Citizens, and one of them accuses him of charges of sedition.
The National Registry of Citizens was created in the state in order to solve the infiltration problem of Bangladeshis. This issue has been creating a lot of problems in the state of Assam as well as the other Northeastern states and a correct NRC could have solved it for all time to come.The process took several years to complete and incurred a cost of several crores of Rupees.
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