A total of 78 residents of a South Dinajpur village who migrated from Bangladesh have been granted citizenship under the provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Around 150 residents of Brahman in the Punduri panchayat of the Harirampur block applied for citizenship, and 78 have already received it. The remaining applicants are expected to get citizenship certificates gradually.
Sources said around 450 families lived in the village, and 150 of them had migrated from Bangladesh at different times.
Some of the residents possess voter identity cards. Others don’t have the cards as they could not submit documents to prove their Indian citizenship.
While most of their names were excluded from the final list during the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) process, some others have been placed in the “under adjudication” category.
People without the electoral enrollment feared that they would be sent back to Bangladesh.
“People would joke that we would be deported. It is a great relief that we have received the citizenship certificates. We will approach the administration to include our names in the electoral roll,” said Abhay Charan Pal, who is 88 years old and the eldest among those who have received the certificates.
Madhab Chandra Pal, another resident, had migrated from Bangladesh to India in 1987.
“Since the end of last month until now, around 80 people received citizenship certificates, and more documents are arriving every day,” he said. “We no longer feel afraid because we have
become Indian citizens. If we are granted voting rights, we will have nothing more to ask for.”
Jagatpati Pal, a local school teacher associated with the RSS, said its volunteers had helped the villagers file their applications after they had learned about the CAA that promises Indian citizenship for Hindus,
Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who migrated to India from Bangladesh,
Pakistan, and Afghanistan
because of religious persecution on or before December
31, 2014
Subhash Bhowal, the South Dinajpur district president of the Trinamool Congress, said if the SIR process had been conducted properly, residents would not have needed to apply for citizenship certificates.
“The central government and the BJP are forcing ordinary people to stand in queues frequently and face harassment,” he said.
Swarup Chowdhury, the district BJP chief, has said people displaced from Bangladesh are being granted citizenship, and more will also receive the certificates soon.
“Trinamool is politicising the issue. A section of people associated with the SIR process is working at the behest of Trinamool and deliberately removed the names of these people from the voter list,” he said.