Flood victims from Jalpaiguri district are perturbed by the Election Commission’s decision to conduct a special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls as they have lost their voter ID cards and other documents in the October 5 flash floods.

Around 5,000 people in the flood-hit areas in the district, including Bamandanga-Tondu tea estate, the model village in Nagrakata, areas like Gadheyarkuthi, Hoglapata and Kurshamari in Dhupguri and Amguri in Mainaguri blocks, are anxious as to how they would furnish documents during the SIR exercise to ensure that their names stay on the voter list.

On October 5, rivers and streams like the Diana, the Jaldhaka, the Kuchidiana and the Bimal Jhora swelled due to rainfall in the upper catchments. These water bodies spilled over the banks and swept away human settlements, causing deaths and leaving thousands homeless.

Around 12,000 people were affected by floods in the district. Nearly 3,000 people are still staying in flood shelters.

“We have learned that the booth-level officers will visit households from November 4 to check our documents. Due to the flood, we have lost our voter cards, educational certificates, land deeds and many other important documents. We don’t know what we can show the the BLOs when they come to visit us,” said Moloy Roy, a resident of Kurshamari of Dhupguri block.

Sadananda Roy, who is from Hoglapata village, another flood-hit area of the same block, said that they were completely banking on the administration.

“We are helpless as all our belongings and documents were swept away in the flood. Only the administration can issue us duplicates of our essential identity proofs,”
Roy said.

“Block officials have told us that we will be provided with new voter IDs and other documents. We are waiting for them and we also hope that those are distributed to us soon, or else, there is the very real fear that our names may be deleted from the voter list,” the flood victim added.

Bengal’s Opposition parties have also expressed their concern about the flood victims.

“The crucial documents which they have lost should be reissued promptly, and then only should SIR be conducted in these flood-affected areas. We said this at the all-party meeting convened by the district magistrate on Thursday,” said Kaushik Bhattacharya, a district secretariat member of the CP Min Jalpaiguri.

District Trinamool leaders pointed out that the administration was holding camps to help affected residents.

Shama Parveen, the district magistrate, said: “In the areas affected by the October 5 floods, administrative camps have been organised to reissue important documents for residents whose papers were swept away. Many people have already received their new documents. Work is on to provide documents to the rest of the people,” she said.