Assam government has appointed IAS officer Partha Pratim Mazumdar as the state coordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Partha Pratim Mazumdar will replace Hitesh Dev Sharma who would be retiring from service on July 31, reports said on July 29.
Mazumdar, who is currently registrar, cooperative societies and secretary to the women and child development department (additional), will also serve as secretary of the home and political department of the government.
Recently, Hitesh Dev Sarma filed a first information report (FIR) with the state government’s vigilance and anti-corruption division, saying that his predecessor, Prateek Hajela, engaged in corrupt behaviour and laundered illicit funds.
In addition to that, he had registered a complaint about how the programme was purposefully developed to circumvent quality tests.
Hitesh Dev Sarma accused Hajela of doing this on purpose, which, in turn, gave certain bureaucrats carte blanche to include questionable residents on the NRC list.
Persons who entered India before the 25th of March, 1971 are required to provide proof of citizenship in the state of Assam.
In order to differentiate Indian citizens from unauthorised immigrants residing in Assam and to bring the National Register of Citizens (NRC) from 1951 up to date in Assam, a statutory notice was issued in December 2013 to begin the procedure that would be overseen by the Supreme Court.
The preliminary list was made public in the month of August 2019, and it omitted 19.06 lakh applications out of 3.3 crore total since the applicants lacked sufficient credentials to prove their Indian identity.
The state government had called the final draft of the NRC “faulty” and had alleged that it has excluded several indigenous people of Assam.
