In a letter to Assam chief secretary, Ravi Kota he stated,, “I am writing to bring to your urgent attention the deplorable and highly unprofessional state of the official National Register of Citizens (NRC) Assam website and its associated public helpline numbers. Recently, while attempting to retrieve my own NRC details, I was confronted with a completely broken administrative mechanism. I needed to acquire my Application Receipt Number (ARN) and navigated to the “Know Your ARN” section on the portal. The website directed me to call the designated state helpline number. Upon calling this number, it continuously rang without any response or acknowledgment whatsoever”.
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He added, “Assuming a technical glitch with the local network, I subsequently used a SIM card registered outside Assam to call the designated toll-free number for outside-Assam queries: 18003453762. Appallingly, this official government helpline connected me to a veterinary hospital in Shillong.This level of infrastructural negligence is completely unacceptable. The NRC process in Assam was a massive, highly sensitive exercise that cost the public expenditure an eye-watering sum of over Rs 1,600 crores. Despite this monumental expenditure, the state has failed to streamline basic digital infrastructure or maintain functioning telephone lines.”
He stated, “The NRC document and its associated data are frequently required by the citizens of Assam for a multitude of legal and administrative reasons. Yet, the current state of the portal makes it inaccessible for individuals to access their own data. Where is the accountability for the massive funds allocated for the IT maintenance of the NRC data? Given the abandoned state of this portal and its helplines, has the State Government implicitly nullified the importance and validity of the NRC altogether? If the NRC remains a vital document for the state, it is the fundamental duty of the government to ensure that the citizens can access their details without facing such sheer administrative mockery. I urge you to immediately investigate this matter, restore the functionality of the NRC website, rectify the diverted helpline numbers, and ensure that a dedicated support team is actively managing citizen queries. The people of Assam deserve a transparent explanation for this gross negligence”.
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As NRC exercise is incomplete the Election Commission did not carry out Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls prior to recently held assembly polls. It conducted Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls.The updation process of the NRC in Assam is caught in a logjam years after the publication of the supplementary list on August 31, 2019. Rejection slips are yet to be issued to those excluded – who can move the Foreigners Tribunal (FT) to challenge the decision – and RGI has not yet notified the NRC.
The supplementary NRC list had found more than 31.1 million people eligible to be included in the registry and left out over 1.9 million people. The Supreme Court which is monitoring the NRC updation had earlier rejected Assam and Centre government’s plea for conducting 20 per cent sample re-verification of the draft NRC published on July 30, 2018, in districts bordering Bangladesh.
There are several petitions pending the Supreme Court seeking review and reverification. One such petition is admitted by the Supreme court is of former NRC co-ordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma.
