Assam Public Works Chief Demands CM Sonowal to Seize Prateek Hajela's Passport

Guwahati, October 20, 2019:

Assam Public Works (APW) Chief Abhijeet Sharma has come down heavily on Assam NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela after it was announced that he would be transferred to Madhya Pradesh, and has warned that he might try and leave the country.

While speaking to Inside Northeast, Sharma said that Hajela should not be allowed to leave without giving any account of the long drawn-out NRC process. "If the Assam Chief Minister is a strong man, if he has any guts, he will not let Hajela leave Assam at any cost. I call upon the Chief Minister to take stringent action against Hajela....seize his passport, if need be..", he said.

ALSO READ: NSCN (IM) Reiterates Demand for Separate Naga Flag, Constitution

Sharma also suggested that the NRC data has not been secured, and Hajela might sell that information to some hostile organization. "Who is to say that Hajela will not disclose the data to a hostile power? What if he intimates ISIS about the number of youths in Assam?", he asked.

Furthermore, the APW Chief stated that no notice has been given to the 19 lakh people who were left out of the NRC. He also stated that the Seva Kendra employees have not received salaries in over 2 months. "Hajela must resolve these issues first", Sharma said.

ALSO READ: Northeast-Linked Vehicle Smugglers Arrested in New Delhi

"He (Hajela) knows that Rakesh Pal's fate will befall him if he stays in Assam, which is why he wants to run. He has misused many hundreds of crores of the people's money", Sharma charged. Sharma also said that many things will be out in the open on November 17.

"We are going to file cases in both the High Court and the Supreme Court" Sharma added.

Support Inside Northeast (InsideNE), an independent media platform that focuses on Citizen-centric stories from Northeast India that are surprising, inspiring, cinematic and emotionally relevant.