GUWAHATI: Assam NRC coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma has submitted before the Gauhati high court that the computer software used in the family tree verification process for updating the list of Indian citizens in the state was designed to help data entry operators with “doubtful integrity” to include names of “large number” of ineligible persons in the list.
Sarma added that the error will remain unless there is a thorough re-examination of the process. Sarma took charge as the state NRC coordinator after his predecessor Prateek Hajela, who had completed the NRC updating process, left the state on an inter-cadre deputation to Madhya Pradesh.
In his affidavit submitted to the HC, Sarma said, “...the software prepared for matching family tree has no provision for quality checks.”
Sarma submitted that a sample check was done in three NRC Seva Kendras and it was found that names of 943 people out of the data of 2,346 Legacy Data Code were entered into the draft NRC through wrong uploading of data.
“About 40.2% erroneous entries were found, which perhaps cannot be taken as an unintentional human error. This implies that integrity of some of the verifying officers were not beyond doubt,” he said.