The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday said that the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) data went offline due to a technical issue on the cloud.

Officials close to the development reported that all Assam NRC data list was made offline from its official website due to non-renewal of contract with the IT firm Wipro.

The MHA added that it was ensuring that the data was safe and the snag would be resolved soon.

The Home Ministry's clarification came after the Congress took on the government over the issue calling that the "missing" of the data a "malafide act".

Leader of the opposition Debabrata Saikia wrote to NRC state coordinator Sarma on Tuesday (11 February) and said, “It is a mystery as to why the online data should vanish all of a sudden, especially as the appeals process has not even started,” Leader of Opposition in the state assembly.

“There is ample scope to suspect that the disappearance of online data is a mala fide act. (It) is prima facie deliberate violation of the directive issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” his letter read.

The complete detail of exclusion and inclusion of bonafide Indian citizens in the NRC was uploaded on its official website 'www.nrcassam.nic.in' after the final list was published on 31 August, 2019.

Officials said that the cloud service for the huge set of data was provided by Wipro and their contract was till 19 October last year.

However, this was not renewed by the earlier Coordinator, Prateek Hajela. The data got offline from 15 December after it was suspended by Wipro. This resulted in panic especially amongst the people who have been excluded from the list as the rejection certificates were yet to be issued.

The final NRC excluded 19,06,657 persons. A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.

Officials in Assam have also assured that data pertaining to the final NRC for Assam going offline is a temporary thing and the issue will be resolved in a few days.

(With inputs from IANS)