Assam NRC data goes offline; govt says a snag

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 12

With reports that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) data in Assam had gone offline from its official website, the Centre today clarified that it was safe and would soon be up and visible, as there were some technical problems which were being resolved.

A Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) spokesperson said, “The NRC data is safe. Some technical issues are in visibility on cloud server. They will be resolved soon.”

According to reports from Guwahati, the data was not available for a couple of days and it created panic among people, particularly those who got excluded from the final NRC list as the rejection certificates are yet to be issued.

Based on a report by NRC State Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma, officials in the MHA said: “It is true that the data has been made offline, but the allegation of any ‘mala fide’ intent is wrong.” The cloud server service for the huge set of data was provided by IT firm Wipro and their contract was till October 19 last year. However, it was not renewed by the previous coordinator. So, the data got offline from December 15 after it was suspended by Wipro, Sarma said in his report. He said the state coordination committee decided to carry out the necessary formalities in its meeting on January 30 and wrote to Wipro in the first week of February.

“Once Wipro makes the data live, it will be available to public. We hope people will be able to access it in the next 2-3 days,” Sarma said.

After the previous NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela relinquished charge on November 11 following his transfer to home state Madhya Pradesh, Sarma was appointed in his place on November 9. The complete detail of exclusion and inclusion of bona fide Indian citizens in the NRC was uploaded on its official website http://www.nrcassam.nic.in after the final list was published on August 31, 2019.

Though the NRC authority denied any wrongdoing in all data going offline and put the blame of non-timely renewal on the earlier NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela, the Congress has dubbed it a “mala fide” and “deliberate” action. Social media too went berserk with netizens criticising the NRC Authority’s “negligence” in handling the sensitive data. RTI activist Saket Gokhale filed an RTI application to the NIC, seeking a copy of the contract with Wipro regarding the online storage of the official NRC list of Assam.

Mala fide intent: Cong

Even as the NRC authority accepted non-renewal of its contract with Wipro on time as the cause for all data vanishing from official website, the Congress accused the government of “mala fide” and “deliberate” action. Social media too went berserk with netizens strongly criticising the NRC Authority’s “negligence” in handling the sensitive data.

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