Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, announced on Wednesday that Prateek Hajela, the former state coordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), will be investigated for alleged irregularities committed while updating the register, which was intended to detect “illegal immigrants” in the northeastern state.
He stated that the Assam government has referred the case to the economic offences and vigilance directorates.
The CM said on Wednesday, “Hajela is a government officer. If he comes to Assam and doesn’t want to work, why will we pay him a salary? If he takes VRS (voluntary retirement scheme), he can.
“But when he is called to Assam by the police, he has to come. His case has been referred to the directorate of economic and vigilance to officially register a first information report (FIR) against him.”
The Supreme Court appointed Hajela, a Madhya Pradesh native and a 1995 batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, as the NRC coordinator in 2019 to oversee the process of finalizing and publishing Assam NRC data.
