Nava Thakuria-
Guwahati: If a senior scribe is named and shamed in social media as a
scam star, should or should not he respond to it? Moreover, when a
particular social media post (following up with a series of posts on
the same television journalist) is liked and shared by thousands of
non-media persons, can he ignore it for a long time? Does it mean that
the said Assamese satellite news channel anchor has silently admitted
his involvement in the multi-crore rupees scam during the updation of
1951 National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam during 2015 to 2019?
Needless to mention that the whistle blower expresses his willingness
to face any lawsuit over the matter.
Many such questions surfaced when a Guwahati-based film producer
claimed in one of his recent facebook posts that a television talk
show host was a beneficiary of financial irregularities in the
updation process of Assam NRC. Luit Kumar Barman, introduced as the
producer of Boomba Ride (selected for Indian Panorama and the
country’s official selection to Cannes Film Festival), also accused
him of carrying out many other fraudulent activities with the
advantage of being a media person. Needless to mention that Barman,
who has 4900 facebook friends and over 21000 followers in social
media, is welcomed by thousands for his brave revelation.
Lately, a forum of nationalist citizens has demanded that the draft
Assam NRC should be reverified completely as the immediate past NRC
State coordinator Hitesh Devsarma publicly stated that it excluded
thousands of indigenous families and included millions of illegal
citizens. Moreover, the Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) asserted
that Devsarma in two separate official complaints had alleged that
faulty software was used in the process and a huge financial scam had
taken place, which was also observed by the Accountant General of
Assam in a provisional audit report.
The NRC authority spent a sum of Rs 1600 crore in the four-year long
process, where a large number of temporary workers (along with nearly
50,000 government employees) were also engaged as data entry operators
DEOs. The system integrator (Wipro Limited) had the responsibility to
supply DEOs, but it allegedly engaged sub-contractors, where some
media persons were also involved. Wipro was sanctioned Rs 14,500 (to
17,500) per DEO per month by the NRC authority, but the subcontractors
paid only Rs 5,500 (to 9,100) to each DEO every month.
“It is unfortunate that around six thousand DEOs were denied even the
minimum amount as per the country’s basic minimum wage. The DEOs, some
of whom approached the State labour commissioner, and many came to the
street demanding their dues, are still deprived of their full payments
(which may be Rs 100 crore in total),” said a PPFA statement adding
that the part time workers should be paid the outstanding amount of
money as early as possible. The forum strongly argued that for
anybody’s greed those DEOs must not be deprived of their legal dues.
There was speculation that at least three city-based news channel
editor-journalists were involved in the NRC updation financial
irregularities. It is understood that a large sum of money, meant for
the DEOs, were fraudulently grabbed by those television
anchor-journalists. Needless to mention that, during the period of NRC
updating process, they tried to project the then NRC State coordinator
Prateek Hajela as an extraordinary bureaucrat (read a superhero).
Moreover any report against the process was discouraged by these
contractor journalists terming it as a fit case for defamation
(because the NRC process was monitored by the apex court of India).
As the businessman turned filmmaker disclosed the illegal activities
of the scribe bluntly, he went on hibernation. Even the great
communicator was contacted by an email for his response over the
matter, but the usually talkative journalist remained silent for days.
Even in a later post, Barman narrated about a book titled ‘The Game
Called NRC’, which was penned by the tainted media person with a
shower of lavish praises for Hajela because of his hard work, probably
to help the IAS officer to apply for some reputed national awards.
Nonetheless the outspoken scribe has not broken his silence till now!
Joi Ho.
