Assam: NRC state coordinator issued notices announcing layoff of at least 121 NRC contractual staff

Digital Desk: In a fresh outcome in NRC-related issues, it's been reported that the state authorities are reducing their employees because Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC), which omitted 19.06 lakh people, has been in limbo since its release in August 2019. As a result, the dismissed workers filed a lawsuit challenging their dismissal with the Gauhati High Court last month.

At least 121 contractual "circle project supervisors," the majority of whom were hired in 2014 to manage NRC-related activities at the circle level, received individual "release notices" from NRC state coordinator, Partha Majumdar, on May 31 informing them that their services were "no longer required."

The letter notified the staff that they had been placed on notice for one month and they are required to turn over all of their assets and records within that time frame. The Registrar General of India, who oversees the NRC exercise, has directed [us] that since there is no work at the moment, the manpower should be removed," stated an employee at the NRC's Guwahati headquarters. 

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"Since December of 2019, these people have only been idle - it has been a huge drain on the exchequer," he said, adding that the NRC office followed the "service regulations for NRC employees" when laying off the supervisors, which requires a one-month notice period before contract termination.

A hundred contract workers have now petitioned the Gauhati High Court for a stay of termination. On June 2, Justice Suman Shyam ordered that the status quo regarding the petitioners' service be preserved.

The petitioners contended that the termination notifications were "unwarranted" and that there were "no justifiable grounds" to terminate their services. They also requested regularisation, citing Rule 11 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003, which required the NRC to be a "continuous process."

The petitioners claim that the uncertainty allows them to continue working on the project. "The claims and rejections are still incomplete, and the individual rejection slips are still far from being distributed," according to the petition.

Previously an employee named Barnam Deka, one of the hundred petitioners released earlier this month, stated that the Assam government had "betrayed" them. "Because it was such an important exercise, we worked around the clock." "And we were repeatedly assured that we would be permanently absorbed into the project," he claimed. 

Another worker, Dianur Islam, stated that finding work would be tough because "age was not on their side." "We have given nearly 9 years of our lives...the majority of us are now over 40. It will be tough for us to find work and support our families today," he predicted.

Reportedly, the hearing has been scheduled for June 21.