Bureaucrats busy in ‘Hajela Bachao’ Abhiyan: APW Chairman Abhijeet Sharma on NRC corruption

Raising the issue of alleged widespread corruption during former NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela’s time in Assam, state Public Works Department chairman Abhijeet Sarma during a press conference said that the government has failed to arrest Hajela even after the Accountant General’s report detailing Hajela’s corruption during the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process in Assam.

“We have been repeatedly referring to the fact that there was corruption worth hundreds of crores of rupees allocated for NRC under the leadership of Prateek Hajela. The government has failed to arrest Hajela, who left Assam by biting the emotions and conscience of the Assamese people. The NRC is considered to be a part of the home department of Assam. The details of Hajela's corruption have been revealed page by page in the report published by the Accountant General (AG). The FIR we have lodged with the Anti-Corruption Branch on rampant corruption, irregularities and the financial mess has been pending approval in the state home department for the last one-and-a-half years,” said APW Chairman Abhijeet Sarma.

“We are not only surprised that the investigating officer did not question us even once as complainants, nor questioned the role of the police. We have brought the matter to the notice of the Director General of Assam Police and demanded strict action against the investigating officer Hemant Tumung. The role played by the Central Government in updating the NRC in Assam, which is about to introduce the National Register of Citizens across the country, is not at all satisfactory,”

Hitting out at the government and the police for being on the same page for not taking any action against Hajela, Abhijeet Sarma further stated, “It's been three years since the supplementary list of citizens of the NRC was published. In these three-and-a-half years, the central government kept insisting that the NRC directorate be finalised in the name of foreigners. In this regard, the influence of the pro-Hajela bureaucrats in the central government is noticeable. The state government has also been saying that it wants a review of the NRC orally in the last three years but has not filed any affidavit in the Supreme Court to date. Apart from this, the government has also not taken any action against the financial scam of hundreds of crores of rupees in the updation of the NRC.”