by Nava Thakuria
As the Supreme Court of India recently agreed to hear a petition seeking a comprehensive and time-bound re-verification of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) updated in Assam between 2014 and 2019, the people of Assam may now hope for a correct list of genuine nationals residing in the northeastern state.
On August 22, 2025, the apex court responded positively to the plea submitted by Hitesh Devsarma, a former State Coordinator of NRC Assam, who demanded an error-free NRC. The Supreme Court admitted the writ petition and issued notices to the Centre, Assam government, NRC coordinator, and the Registrar General of India (RGI).
The 1951 NRC for Assam was updated following the Supreme Court’s direction to identify illegal immigrants, with the cut-off date set as March 25, 1971—a date accepted under the Assam Accord of 1985, which ended the six-year Assam agitation. The process aimed to detect and deport millions of undocumented migrants, primarily from Bangladesh. The NRC updation exercise was reportedly monitored by the Supreme Court itself.
Prateek Hajela, a 1995-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, was appointed as State Coordinator to supervise the massive exercise. However, shortly after the final NRC draft was published on August 31, 2019—marking around 19 lakh individuals as undocumented—Hajela was transferred back to his home state, Madhya Pradesh, amid security concerns.
Subsequently, the NRC updating process became embroiled in corruption and malpractice, as exposed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). According to the CAG report, financial irregularities amounting to ₹260 crore occurred during the process, and it recommended penal action against Hajela and Wipro Limited, the system integrator.
Even before the CAG report, Hitesh Devsarma had raised serious allegations against Hajela, accusing him of deliberately manipulating the NRC process to include large numbers of infiltrators for personal gain. Devsarma claimed that the ‘Family Tree Matching’ verification mechanism was compromised by Hajela and his associates, allowing hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi Muslim settlers to be illegitimately included in the NRC draft.
Devsarma also demanded thorough investigations by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) into Hajela’s role.
Recently, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma openly admitted that the NRC draft was faulty and that a fraud had been committed against the Asomiya people. He stated that New Delhi spent ₹1,600 crore on the NRC exercise, only for Hajela to prepare a flawed list.
Meanwhile, conscious citizens continue to demand an authentic NRC and a transparent probe into the CAG findings, including the issue of deprived salaries meant for nearly 6,000 part-time Data Entry Operators (DEOs). These workers reportedly earned only between ₹5,500 and ₹9,100 per month—well below India’s basic minimum wage—while Wipro earned an average of ₹14,500 per DEO monthly. The estimated siphoned amount, even after reasonable profit margins, exceeds ₹100 crore and remains in the pockets of Wipro or its subcontractor, Integrated System & Services.
Adding to the controversy, a majority of Assam’s local media largely remained silent on these financial malpractices. Several Guwahati-based television journalists reportedly spread misinformation, promoting the flawed NRC draft as the most reliable document for the indigenous population and urging its acceptance without further verification.
At least one TV talk-show host faced severe criticism on social media for allegedly supporting the flawed NRC process but never responded to the accusations. The same individual even published a book lauding Hajela’s work as exemplary and lobbied for his national recognition.
Given the gravity of the allegations and the massive public interest, a genuine and impartial probe is essential to unearth all those involved in defrauding the nation under the pretext of updating the NRC.
