"Ignorant" Mancha tries to mislead people on NRC: Hajela

NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela has denied all charges levelled by a Guwahati-based citizens' forum and claimed that the group is "misleading" the people of Assam and "ignorant" of the basics of the verification system of the National Register of Citizens.

The Sachetan Nagarik Mancha, a platform of citizens formed during updation work of the NRC, had submitted a memorandum to Hajela and then to President Ram Nath Kovind earlier this month alleging wrongful exclusions as well as inclusions in the document, the final version of which is slated to be released on Saturday.

The Mancha recently held a demonstration in New Delhi for an error-free NRC, touted to be a proof of Assamese identity, and demanded a CBI probe into the alleged illegal trading of legacy data.

Giving a point-by-point rebuttal of allegegations levelled against the NRC authorities by the Mancha, Hajela wrote a letter to its president saying, "It appears that far from carrying out any responsibility, your organisation is involved only in creating rhetoric making grandiose allegations which are not supported by an iota of evidence."
Hajela said the Mancha mentioned a few registration numbers like "ARN No 30071, 301664" suspected to be of doubtful people included in the list, but the "NRC ARN number is a 21-digit number and the numbers quoted by you of 5-digits cannot, therefore, be ARN numbers."