Risk of data tampering in Assam’s NRC updation process: CAG report

Guwahati:  The Comptroller and Auditor General of India have flagged the “risk of data tampering” in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam, due to “improper” software development related to data capture and correction during the updation process of the citizenship document.
A highly secure and reliable software was required to be developed for the NRC updation exercise, but during the audit, “lack of proper planning in this regard” came to the fore.
The updated final NRC, which validates bonafide Indian citizens of Assam, was released on August 31, 2019, with a total of 3,11,21,004 names included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants, though it is yet to be notified.
The CAG submitted a report for the year ended in 2020, on the last day of the winter session of the Assam Assembly on Saturday, which pointed out that 215 software utilities were added in a “haphazard manner” to the core software.
It was done “without following the due process of either software development or selection of vendor through eligibility assessment following a national tendering,” the report said.
“Haphazard development of software and utilities for NRC data capture and correction posed the risk of data tampering, without leaving any audit trail. The audit trail could have ensured accountability for the veracity of NRC data,” the CAG report said.