Jan. 15: Bogus voters, fake I-cards and forged ration cards are not the only problems plaguing the border districts.

Farmers in Murshidabad who who work in fields along the border have complained to Election Commission observer R.K. Khandelwal that BSF jawans with whom they have to deposit their voter I-cards often misplace them.

In Jalangi alone, Khandelwal heard that about 1,000 villagers had lost their voter I-cards in this way.

At Ghoshpara, 7 km from the border, the observer was flooded with complaints from the likes of Hakim Sardar, Hajrat Ali and Babu Mondal.

“While going to work in the morning, we deposit our voter identity cards with the jawans. The jawans’ shift changes and the one who dealt with us is not there when we return in the evening. The jawan on duty then feigns ignorance about the cards and drives us away,” Hajrat Ali said on Thursday.

There are 60 villages and about 50,000 people under the nine police stations near the border in Murshidabad.

“Losing an I-card because of the BSF is an entirely new kind of problem. I’ll submit a report on this to the commiss-ion,” Khandelwal said.

BSF commandant A.K. Sharma said: “The cards are always returned. We are not responsible for the loss.”

District magistrate N. Manjunatha Parasad said: “We told Khandelwal that the problem has been discussed with the BSF. From now, the jawans would issue a token against each card. While returning, the farmers can collect the cards against the tokens.”

In Nadia, the headmaster of Gobindapur Primary School in Tehatta was arrested yesterday for issuing school-leaving certificates to people who did not have documents to prove their citizenship.

Muluk Sheikh was held on the instructions of K.J. Rao, the poll panel adviser who had toured the district and expressed concern over Bangladeshis casting votes in India.

Officials in the border districts could not put a figure to the number of such voters.

The Trinamul Congress had complained against Sheikh. District magistrate Rajesh Pandey said: “The headmaster could not show us school documents relating to those whom he issued the certificates.”

Dual votes

The observer for Darjeeling, M. Nagaraju, has ordered the deletion of 129 names from voter lists in Kharibari block on the Bengal-Bihar border, about 40 km from Siliguri. The Congress and the BJP had alleged that they vote in both states.