Assam: CAG report points out ‘large scale anomalies’ in NRC updation software

Assam NRC

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has cautioned that the Assam data on National Regiter of Citizens is at a high risk of data tampering. It has reportedly detected large-scale anomalies in the data collected under NRC exercise which concluded in August 2019. The NRC was a Supreme Court monitored exercise which was aimed at detecting illegal immigrants who entered Assam illegally. The NRC of Assam excluded more than 19 lakh people, leaving them to prove their citizenship in Foreigners Tribunals, thus leaving their citizenship status in a limbo.

In a CAG report tabled in the Assam Assembly on December 23, it is stated that “In NRC updation process, a highly secure and reliable software was required to be developed, but during the audit, lack of proper planning in this regard came to the fore.” The report pointed out hat 215 software utilities were haphazardly added to the core software, without following due process. Further, selection of vendors through eligibility assessment was also not done properly.

“Haphazard development of software and utilities for NRC data capture and correction posed the risk of data tampering, without leaving any audit trail,” states the report.

“Thus, the intended objective of preparing a valid, error-free NRC has not been met despite direct expenditure of ₹1,579.78 crore as well as manpower cost of development of a large number of government servants ranging from 40,000 to 71,000,” the report adds. It further states that the cost increased from Rs. 288.18 crore in 2014 to Rs. 1,602.66 crore in 2019 due to change in scope.

The report points out irregularities in the utilisation of funds, as well as excess and inadmissible payment to vendors.

The CAG has also recommends actions against M/S Wipro Limited for violating the Minimum Wages Act, for paying the data entry operators less than minimum wages and stated that action should also be taken against the then NRC coordinator (Prateek Hajela) for not ensuring that minimum wages were paid.

The amount of wages paid to the outsourced staff was 45.59% to 64.27% less than the rate approved by the NRC coordination committee, it said, adding that the difference of wages allowed undue benefit of ₹155.83 crore to the system integrator and the labour contractor beyond the 10% “reasonable profit margin”, reported The Hindu.

The CAG report paves the way for re-verification of NRC which has been the demand of the BJP-ruled Assam government and the new NRC co-ordinator Hitesh Dev Sharma as well. Even the Union Ministry of Home Affairs said in the Parliament that the NRC published on August 31, 2019 was a supplementary list of inclusions and exclusions.

In May 2021, Assam’s State Coordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Hitesh Dev Sarma moved the Supreme Court, demanding a re-verification of the NRC published on August 31, 2019 saying that due to major irregularity many names of ineligible people had made it to the list. It is clear that the NRC Coordinator’s move was first signaled by the political ruling elite in Assam echoed by the party in power at the Centre. Sarma has been vocal in his opposition to the August 2019 Final NRC list stating that “There were lots of mistakes and wrong entries in the NRC A large number of foreigners were entered in the NRC list,” he said in September while speaking to ANI.

Assam Public Works, an NGO that is at the center of the NRC case in the Supreme Court demanded a complete re-verification of the list. But the apex court rejected the plea on July 23, 2019 . But the BJP-led government of Assam remained adamant on re-verification and in September 2020 made a formal submission before the state assembly demanding 10-20 percent re-verification.

Finality of the NRC

The latest updated NRC was published on August 31, 2019 after a mammoth exercise where 3.2 crore people of Assam submitted over 6 crore documents that underwent seven layers of checks before their names were included in the NRC. Finally, 19,06,657 people were excluded from the coveted list.

In September 2021, the Karimganj Foreigners Tribunal, while declaring a person to be an Indian Citizen, also upheld the finality of the NRC of 2019. The court observed that NRC Assam was prepared as per provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 (especially as mandated by Section 14A) and The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003 and under the orders and directions of the Supreme Court.

Significantly, in March 2021, BJP’s election manifesto for Assam Assembly elections promised a “corrected NRC”.

Though the NRC was a process monitored by the Supreme Court, the Assam government has vehemently refused to accept the NRC.

In April 2022, Sarma wrote to Assam’s Foreigners’ Tribunals (FT) asking them not to rely on the August 2019 NRC list and not to treat it as evidence for disposal of cases under judicial or quasi-judicial process”.

On May 10, a member of the FT told Scroll that Sarma’s letter amounted to “interference” and was beyond his “jurisdictions and limits of power”. As per the publication, the RGI has himself has written several letters to Sharma asking for rejection slips to be issued to the people left out of the NRC so that their cases could be decided in the foreigners’ tribunals. The rejection slips that are yet to be issued to those excluded from NRC have been living in a limbo since more than 3 years now.

The Final NRC is yet to be published by the Registrar General of India as required under Clause 7 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

According to the press release issued jointly by the registrar general and the NRC coordinator on August 31, 2019, the list being published was the “final NRC”.