Assam NRC data goes offline; nothing to worry, say officials

Officials in
Assam have reassured that data concerning to the final National Register of
Citizens (NRC) for Assam going offline is a temporary thing and the issue will
be resolved in a few days.

The data,
which contains information on applicants included and missing from the list
released in August last year, went missing after NRC officials failed to renew
contract with Wipro, the IT firm responsible for cloud storage of the data.

The official
said the lapse happened after previous NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela,
who was transferred from the post to Madhya Pradesh following a Supreme Court
directive, failed to renew the contract.

Hajela left
Assam in November and the new state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma took charge in
December after the data had already gone offline.

Data on
details included in the NRC final list, which excluded 19 lakh applicants, was
released online on September last year following a Supreme Court order. With
the data going offline, applicants are unable to view their details or download
the lists which includes their names.

Meanwhile,
Opposition Congress said it suspects the issue could be the result of some
malafide act and asked NRC officials to look into the “suspicious development”.

The appeal process for
those excluded from the NRC list is yet to begin as various petitions alleging
anomalies in the inclusion and exclusion of names are pending in Supreme Court
seeking re-evaluation