Assam NRC data disappeared from official site, MHA says its temporary issue

February 12: The data related to Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) suddenly disappeared from its official website. The data contained the details of the final list of NRC which was published on 31 August, 2019 and did not have names of over 19 lakh people. The moment this came to light on Tuesday, there was a hue and cry no only in Assam but all throughout the country.

However, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was quick to react. MHA said that the data is safe and cited that due to some technical glitch, the data is not visible on the website. The ministry also assured that the problem will be resolved soon. It was stated that the Assam NRC data list was made offline from its official website due to non-renewal of contract with the IT firm Wipro.

As per a source, the contract of NRC authorities with the technology partner Wipro ended on October 19 last year. The service period of the cloud storage provided by Wipro expired and the subscription renewal was not done as there was no coordinator after the transfer of the former coordinator Prateek Hajela. Hajela left Assam in November and the new state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma took charge in December after the data had already gone offline.

The opposition in the state has written to the Registrar General of India alleging “malafide intent” and urged for the matter to be looked into. Opposition leader Debabrata Saikia wrote, “It is a mystery as to why the online data should vanish all of a sudden, especially as the appeals process has not even started due to the go-slow attitude adopted by the NRC Authority.”

This incident came at a time when the final NRC list in Assam is yet to be officially notified by the Registrar General of India.

The final NRC list of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published on 31 August, 2019. Out of a total number of 3,30,27,661 applicants, the names of 3,11,21,004 were included in the final NRC. That means a total of 19,06,657 persons were excluded from the NRC. At least 2,500 NRC Seva Kendras (NSK) offices were then set up across the state for people to check the status of their applications.