New in the Northeast | NRC irregularities continue; bulldozers reach Assam

Cases have been filed against former NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela alleging irregularities in updating the list. This while five houses of residents of Salonabari in Assam’s Nagaon district were razed by bulldozers

NRC list is published, but the controversies remain

Sunday’s incident was the first one where such demolitions took place immediately after an attack on police and was done without any prior intimation or notice.  (ANI)

It was a four-year-long gargantuan exercise costing around ₹1,600 crore which was expected to end, once and for all, Assam’s four-decade-old illegal immigrant issue. But nearly three years since the final list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam was made public, controversies surrounding it still hit headlines in the Northeastern state.

The process to update the NRC, which was first prepared for Assam in 1951, began in 2015 following directions from the Supreme Court. The exercise monitored by the apex court in which 33 million residents of Assam were asked to prove their citizenship was aimed at weeding out illegal immigrants, especially those from Bangladesh.

When the list was finally published in August 2019, it left out 1.9 million applicants whose antecedents were suspect or couldn’t provide enough valid documents to substantiate claims that they or their ancestors were residents of Assam on or before March 24, 1971, the cut-off date set as per the Assam Accord of 1985.

As soon as the list was published it was dubbed incorrectly by the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led government claiming that it has included many dubious persons and left out genuine citizens. Many other parties and groups also found flaws in it on similar grounds. At present, several pleas including one by the Assam government are pending in Supreme Court seeking a partial or full review of the list.

Meanwhile, the Registrar General of India (RGI) is yet to notify the list. Due to this delay, those left out of NRC have not been able to file fresh appeals seeking their inclusion as citizens. In the intervening period, Assam Public Works (APW), a local NGO whose petition in Supreme Court in 2009 had set the ball rolling for updating the NRC for Assam, has filed over a dozen police cases against former NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela alleging irregularities in updating the list.

Last week, Hajela hit the news again when his successor Hitesh Dev Sharma filed a police case against him alleging treason and threat to national security for intentionally allowing irregularities in preparing the list, which resulted in illegal migrants registering their names as Indians. The case was filed in the criminal investigation department (CID) under sections 120B, 166A, 167, 181, 218, 420 and 466 of the Indian Penal Code.

“Prateek Hajela may have intentionally avoided a mandatory quality check by ordering the use of software which prevented quality check and facilitated the entry of names of ineligible persons into NRC, which can be seen as an anti-national act affecting the national security,” Sharma said in his complaint.

Following instructions of the Supreme Court, Hajela, an IAS officer who had overseen the entire NRC updation exercise, was transferred to his parent state Madhya Pradesh within weeks of the list getting released in 2019. He left Assam in November, 2019 and the Assam government-appointed Hitesh Dev Sarma, another IAS officer, as the new state coordinator for NRC.

Now with Sharma seeking a police probe against Hajela, the controversy over Assam’s NRC is unlikely to die down anytime soon and the problems it set out to resolve, remain unaddressed.

Bulldozers targeting alleged criminals reach Assam

Early on Sunday morning, a large posse of security personnel reached Salonabari near Batadrava in Assam’s Nagaon district and in a swift action five houses of residents of the area were razed by bulldozers. The police action in reaction to an attack on the Batadrava police station on Saturday by some residents of Salonabari has raised eyebrows.

As per the police, on Saturday, a mob of nearly 40 persons set ablaze an old building of the police station in which a few motorcycles, some records and arms and ammunition were destroyed. The attack was in retaliation against the death of Safiqul Islam, a 39-year-old fish trader, who was picked up by police a day earlier and who died on Saturday under suspicious circumstances.

Islam’s family members claim he was illegally detained by police and subjected to torture after the family expressed inability to pay ₹10,000 and a duck for his release and it led to his death. The police, on the other hand, maintain Islam was brought to the police station after receiving a complaint that he was drunk and lying on a public road.

As per the police, he was released the next day and handed over to his wife. “His wife even gave him some water/food. Later he complained of sickness and was taken to two hospitals, one after another. Unfortunately, he was declared dead,” said a statement by Assam Police DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta.

Islam’s death led some of his family members and other residents of Salonabari to reach Batadrava police station located nearly 6 km away, attack the policemen present there and set the old building ablaze. Videos of the attack showed a woman pouring an inflammable liquid on two motorcycles and another woman lighting a matchstick to ignite the fire.

Nagaon district police, which failed to prevent the attack, was swift to arrest five persons and detain 15 more for their involvement. But in an unexpected move, the police razed five houses including Islam’s and two of his close relatives claiming they were illegal settlers and had encroached on government land using forged documents.

Special DGP (law and order) GP Singh claimed that the information about illegal encroachments came to light during the investigation into Saturday’s attack. “Since people are staying illegally in that area and indulging in illegal tasks, some houses in that area have been demolished on Sunday,” he said on Sunday morning.

Later in the day, DGP Mahanta added that during the investigation police found suspicious activity at some homes in the area from where most people involved in Saturday's incident hailed. "In order to investigate that and clean the area, we have razed some homes and if required we will conduct digging in the area as well. We have reason to believe that there was a conspiracy behind the attack and our investigation will focus on that," he said.

The state government has announced the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the attack on the police station and a separate investigation is underway to find out the cause of Islam’s death. But the move to raze houses of people has been slammed by the state’s opposition.

“It seems there's no difference between those burning the police station and the police. Will police react in the same manner and demolish the homes of the accused?” Congress MLA from Batadrava, Sibamoni Bora, said. Sibasagar MLA and President of Raijor Dal, Akhil Gogoi said, "Attack on a police station is condemnable and action should be taken against all involved. But under what law did the police went ahead and razed houses of some people?"

In past weeks, instances of bulldozers razing ‘illegal’ houses and establishments allegedly targeting one community have taken place in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. While Assam has witnessed bulldozers and excavators being used to uproot illegal encroachers in the past year as part of a concerted drive by the state’s BJP-led government, Sunday’s incident was the first one where such demolitions took place immediately after an attack on police and was done without any prior intimation or notice.