The fear for CAA, NRC ahead of the general elections has gripped East Burdwan residents after they got letters for deactivation of their Aadhaar cards.
At least 80 families from villages like Jaugram, Abujhati, Ajhapur in Jamalpur block of the district have received letters from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that stated: “You haven’t complied with the basic applications requisite for staying in India.” The UIDAI communication maintained multiple issues for different ‘citizens’.
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For some, it mentioned “you haven’t updated your Aadhaar database” and for some it stated, “the tenure of your visa period for staying in India has expired”, and some received just a single line of information that read: “your Aadhaar card is deactivated”. The letters maintained the Rule 28-A of the country’s Aadhaar (enrolment & update) Regulations-2016.
Union home minister Amit Shah recently stressed that CAA will be enforced before the Lok Sabha polls. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee also has also alleged recently that the BJP was trying to earn political gains in the name of bringing CAA, NRC to surface.
The communications to the panicked Jamalpur residents like Bipul Biswas, Putul Sarkar, Priya Sarkar, Lipika Biswas was a bolt from the blue. They received the UIDAI letters three days ago from their respective post offices. Such residents, incidentally, have come to India from Bangladesh recently. They were immigrants. Badrinath Sarkar, a resident, said, “I’ve received the notice four days ago. My ration card, bank operations have already been suspended as my ‘thumb impression’ is termed as ‘invalid’ after this move.”
Badrinath has been staying in West Bengal for the last 35 years. He said, “Initially, we were staying in Basirhat from where I, with my family, shifted to Jamalpur, 11 years ago.”
The Trinamul Congress, meanwhile, has taken up the issue with serious concern. Prosenjit Das, spokesperson of the party in Burdwan, said, “We’ve set to stand beside the families. We’ll resort to all efforts to secure their staying here.”
Usually, any foreigner staying in India for more than 182 days is eligible to apply for Aadhaar enrolment. One official with the district administration said, “The persons who’d applied for Aadhaar enrolment between 2010 & 2014 didn’t submit many requisite documents. They have been issued letters from the UIDAI authority.”
The district BJP, considering political setback on the issue, has reserved comments in the district for the day.
