Hitesh Dev Sarma becomes new coordinator of NRC
After the transfer of National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator Prateek Hajela to Madhya Pradesh, Assam government on Saturday appointed Hitesh Dev Sarma, a 1986-batch Assam Civil Service (ACS) officer, as the new coordinator.
He will be taking over the office on Monday. The Supreme Court had earlier ordered the transfer of NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela following which Assam government had started a hunt to select the new NRC coordinator.
Mr Sarma had earlier worked in the NRC directorate. He was also involved in the initial works of NRC, which started in 2013.
Later, he moved out of NRC directorate in 2016. The NRC coordinator is the commissioner level post.
Mr Sarma is currently posted as a secretary in
The decision came in the backdrop of two cases registered against the former NRC coordinator by Assam police following complaints of wrongful exclusions in the citizens’ list
the department of finance and urban development, government of Assam. The next process of issuing rejection letters to those left out of final NRC is expected to start during the month.
The Supreme Court Bench had transferred Mr Hajela. The decision came in the backdrop of two cases registered against the former NRC coordinator by Assam police following complaints of wrongful exclusions in the citizens’ list published on August 31.
A native of Madhya Pradesh, Mr Hajela is a 1995-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre with B.Tech in Electronics from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Before the NRC posting, he had held the position of mission director, national rural health mission; commissioner and secretary, health and family welfare. A total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC.
The former National Register of Citizens coordinator had courted several controversies ever since the exclusion of 40 lakh people from the draft list. His report to the Supreme Court, suggesting that those now seeking inclusion into the list be allowed to submit only 10 out of the original 15 “list A” documents, had also earned the wrath of several civil society organisations.
The final NRC, which was published on August 31, found a total of 3, 11, 21,004 persons eligible for inclusion in the registry leaving out 19, 06,657 persons.