Breaking | NRC Co-Ordinator Prateek Hajela to be Transferred to Madhya Pradesh

Guwahati, October 18, 2019:

Supreme Court on Thursday in a surprise move has ordered the inter-cadre transfer of Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator Prateek Hajela to Madhya Pradesh.

The Supreme Court was hearing a plea on the NRC filed by the Assam Public Work (APW) demanding 100 percent re-verification of the final NRC list.

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The order was passed by a bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SA Bobde and Rohinton Nariman, as reported by Bar and Bench.

Sources have informed the Haleja has been ordered to join his new posting within the next seven days. Moreover, the CJI too is slated to retire in the month of November. With the NRC yet to come to a conclusive end, Hajela's transfer casts more doubt on the NRC's success in weeding out 'illegals'. This move is also bound to raise alarm among the citizenry of the State, as many crores of taxpayers' money were spent on the NRC.

Hajela is a 1995 batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre who was appointed as the State Coordinator for the historic drafting of NRC and now ordered for transfer to Madhya Pradesh.

It may be mentioned here that on August 31st, 2019, the Assam government released the final NRC list that excluded 19,06,657 persons including those who did not submit claims.

It listed names of 3,11,21,004 persons who were found eligible.

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Following this, the state government and other organizations expressed dissatisfaction over the publication of the draft as many complaints of anomalies were reported across the state of Assam.

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