Residents of the erstwhile Bangladeshi enclaves in Cooch Behar have demanded that the Centre issue certificates of naturalisation or nationality to formally recognise their Indian citizenship, underscoring that thousands of them have been put under adjudication post-SIR.
On Monday, hundreds of them took out a march to the district magistrate’s office here, demanding their names be cleared as voters before the Assembly elections.
“Questioning the citizenship of enclave residents once more is unconstitutional and undermines our democratic rights. The EC should resolve the issue immediately so that all eligible residents of former enclaves are cleared and we can cast their votes,” said Chattar Mian, a resident of former enclave Dakshin Mashaldanga.
“If required, the Centre should issue certificates to us to recognise our Indian citizenship,” he added.
On July 31, 2015, around 15,000 residents of 51 Bangladeshi enclaves — villages landlocked within the Indian territory — integrated into the Indian mainland under the land boundary agreement signed between India and Bangladesh.
In due course, they were handed over voter ID cards, Aadhaar cards and other identity documents by the administration.
However, as the preliminary "final" list was published after the SIR on February 28, around 9,000 of them found their names in the under-adjudication category.
“We became Indian citizens in 2015 and voted in the 2016 Assembly polls for the first time. Now that we have been put under adjudication, a section of us fear we will lose our citizenship status and be pushed to Bangladesh. That is why we want our certificates,” said Nur Nabi Mia, another resident of a former enclave.
Demonstrating in front of the DM’s office, residents threatened to intensify their movement if their demands were not met.
“We want the EC to confirm that all of us will vote in the upcoming elections. If our names do not figure in the supplementary list (after adjudication), we will hit the streets again,” said Jainal Abedin, the dweller of a former enclave which is now an Indian village in Dinhata.
