Guwahati: After the transfer of National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator, Prateek Hajela, to Madhya Pradesh, the Assam government on Saturday appointed Hitesh Dev Sarma, a 1986 batch Assam Civil Service officer, as the new coordinator.
He will be taking over on Monday. The Supreme Court had earlier ordered the transfer of NRC coordinator, Prateek Hajela, following which the Assam government had started a hunt to select the new NRC coordinator.
Sarma earlier worked in the NRC directorate. He was involved in the initial work on the NRC which started in 2013. Later, he moved out of NRC directorate in 2016.
Sarma is currently posted as secretary in department of finance and urban development, government of Assam. The next process of issuing rejection letters to those left out of the final NRC is expected to start during the month.
The Supreme Court bench had transferred Hajela. The decision came against the backdrop of two cases registered against the former NRC coordinator by Assam Police following complaints of wrongful exclusion in the citizens’ list published on August 31. A total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC. The former NRC coordinator had courted several controversies ever since the exclusion of 40 lakh people from the draft list.
