No further provision of funds for NRC made: RGI to Assam government

The Registrar General of India has in a letter to the Assam government said that until further orders the state won’t receive any extra financial or logistical support for completing the process of updating the National Register of Citizens. The RGI office has reminded the state authorities that the process was supposed to be completed by March 31, 2020.

The NRC authorities are caught in a logjam as the issuance of rejection slips to those left out of the final register hasn’t started yet.

In a letter to Assam secretary (home and political department) SR Bhuyan, RGI joint director Jaspal Singh said: “As per the recommendation of the expenditure finance committee, all infrastructure, including data centre created under the scheme for updation of National Register of Citizens in the state of Assam, shall be the property of the state government, except IT and non-equipment’s supplied at NSKs and circles, including generators, by the system integrator… Therefore, it is requested that the state government can make arrangements for maintenance and upkeep of these assets. Office of the state coordinator may also be shifted to the state government building and staff may be taken off and the charge may be taken over from SPMU (state project management unit) and handed over to the state government staff. Similarly, contractual HR at the field level may be discontinued and the charge may be handed over the staff of district registrars of citizen registration.”


The letter said: “The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs…approved…₹1.602.66 crore up to 31:12:2019 for...updation of NRC 1951 in the state of Assam with a condition that this will not be revised further before winding up the NRC process by 31.03.2021. No further provision of funds for the expenditure under the scheme is made.”

As per the letter, the requirement of “₹3.32 crore per month beyond March 31, 2021, appears too high”.