Demanding to clear the outstanding dues for the temporary workers, engaged in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) updation process of Assam, a national organization plans to sit in demonstration on October 2 next in various parts of the nation including the virtual capital of Northeast.
Bharat Raksha Manch (Save India Forum), which has been pursuing for the NRC across Bharat, insisted that all dues to nearly 7,000 data entry operators (DEOs)-who worked as part time employees in the Assam NRC updation process- should be paid urgently.
State BRM president Dwijendra N Barthakur claimed that the former State NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela, the system integrator Wipro limited and one sub-contractor named Integrated System and Services (ISS) siphoned a sum of Rs 155 crores during the process (May 2014 to October 2019), which was meant for the DEOs. He alleged that Hajela was personally engaged with the scam involving Rs 260 crores in the updation exercise. Barthakur highlighted that the issue of deprived DEOs was also mentioned by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its report.
Recently, a BRM delegation submitted a memorandum to Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria at Raj bhawan in the city for the second time in two months and reiterated two primary demands for a correct NRC in Assam and legal punishments to Hajela, who has already earned VRS benefits from the State government. State BRM president Dwijendra N Barthakur alleged that Hajela was personally engaged with the scam involving Rs 260 crores in the NRC Assam updation.
Speaking to the media, Hitesh Devsarma (immediate successor of Hajela as NRC State coordinator, who lodged two complaints against him claiming the intentional inclusion of millions of Bangladeshi migrants’ names in the NRC draft with thehelp of tempered software), argued that the NRC authority spent a sum of Rs 1600 crore in the exercise, but the DEOs are still deprived of their full salaries as per the country’s Minimum Wages Act. DEOs paid only Rs 5,500 to 9,100 per month (per person), whereas it was sanctioned Rs 14,500 to 17,500 every month for one DEO by the Union government, asserted Devsarma.
Few months back, an Assam-based forum of nationalist citizens also demanded that the concerned authorities should pay the outstanding amount of money to the DEOs.
Patriotic People’s Front Assam argued that those employees must not be deprived of their legal dues because of the fate of NRC, whether its accepted, modified or even rejected by the government.
