Calcutta, Dec. 12: Staying away from home for over six months might rob you of voting rights. That is a fear now looming in the districts.

On a drive to prevent Bangaldeshi infiltrators from voting in pockets of Murshidabad, Birbhum, Malda and some other districts, the election office has been sending notices to people who they think could be living illegally in India.

Many such notices have, however, been served on genuine voters, whose names are being scrapped from the electoral rolls simply because they have been living away from their original localities.

Over 300,000 people from Murshidabad alone work as artisans and labourers or are engaged in other services elsewhere ? from Uttar Pradesh to Jammu and Maharashtra. They return home once a year.

“These people are running the risk of being branded foreigners,” said Ahmed Hasan Imran, the general secretary of the Muslim Council of Bengal, which represents several minority organisations.

Armed with the notices and instances of several such voters ? born in Bengal and living here till venturing out for work ? the council has decided to seek the chief minister’s intervention. “We will take to the streets. The government should know that hundreds of people have lost their homes to erosion in Murshidabad and Malda. How will they prove their identity now?” asked Hasan Imran.

The electoral registration officer in Murshidabad’s Behrampore had sent a notice to Abdul Haque Sheikh, a resident of Baruipara under the Hariharpara Assembly constituency. Abdul was told that his name would be scrapped from the voters’ list. “It has been reported that you have been found absent from the place of your ordinary residence as given in the electoral roll for more then six months. It is, therefore, presumed that you have ceased to be ordinarily resident in the constituency at the above-mentioned address,” the notice read.

What the officer did not care to find out was that Abdul is employed as a mason in Burdwan. “I rushed to the electoral office, but was rudely told to leave. They told me that I had to bring my husband or my name would also be omitted,” his wife Hasina said.

Sheikh Azizullah of Lalgola was also threatened that the names of his family members would be struck off the rolls.

Chief electoral officer Debasish Sen said notices are being issued to voters in various parts of the state on the basis of information provided by police on people against whom non-bailable arrest warrants are pending. “We do not want to hurt genuine voters and whatever we have done is based on inputs provided to us by the police.”

However, the Muslim council pointed out that the notices did not mention that they were for those against whom warrants were pending. “Many who have received the notice do not have a single case against them,” Hasan Imran said.

Congress MP from Murshidabad Mannan Hossain added that many voters were illiterate and sending them notices in English was only delaying the process and adding to the confusion.