Kendrapara: Preparation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the district is facing problems as the state government has not given its nod for the citizenship survey, a report said Tuesday.
The matter came out after the state Forest and Environment Department wrote to the Union Home Minister recommending the preparation of the NRC August 3.
Amicus curiae Mohit Agarwall has also given his consent for preparing NRC in this coastal district. However, the state government has not convened a Cabinet meeting to take a decision on this. The state Cabinet has to inform its decision on preparing NRC in the district to the Union Government.
This has become important as infiltration from Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries continues to plague Kendrapara district. It is apprehended that the proposal to prepare an NRC might slip into oblivion as the state government has not given its nod for the exercise. Moreover, several other obstacles are likely to affect NRC preparation in the district.
Opinion makers are divided on guidelines to be followed for identifying Odias, Indian Bengalis and Bangladeshis in the district.
A woman, Runu Mandal of Bhadrak district, married Sujay Mandal of Banipal village of Mahakalapara block in Kendrapara district 10 years back.
She is a mother of two children and they have Aadhaar cards, voter ID cards, PAN cards, land title deeds and ration cards. But her father-in-law who is now dead had received a deportation order in 2005.
Runu asked why she and her family should be punished for the wrong committed by her deceased father-in-law. She said that she and her family are unaware about whether their ancestors came from Bangladesh. They have been staying in Odisha for a long time and have been brought up as Odias. She asked why they should not be included in NRC.
Lawyer Bidhu Bhushan Mohapatra said the Right to Citizenship Act-1951 and the voters list of March 24, 1971 was taken into account for preparing the NRC in Assam.
According to the Commencement of Citizenship Act-2003, children born before July 1987 in India are given citizenship rights.
He said these criteria should be taken as yardstick for preparing the NRC which will help in excluding over 60 per cent of Bangladeshi illegal.
Lawyer Ashis Senapati said the Citizenship Act 1955 has provisions to safeguard the citizenship rights of people other than the sons of the soil living here for ages. The coastal district is facing erosion mostly in Satabhaya and Pentha and people from there have been shifted to safer places.
Similarly, there are several people living on Bhitarkanika forest land where the Forest Conservation Act came into force in 1975. These problems will prove a stumbling block in preparing the district’s NRC.
A notification by the former Union Government dated September 7, 2015 is also proving an impediment in preparing NRC.
On humanitarian grounds the Centre had exempted people belonging to the minority communities of Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014 without valid documents due to religious persecution and have regularised their presence in the country. These include Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Parsis and Buddhists.
Environmentalists here say that Bangladeshi illegal are responsible for destroying the environment. They demanded that the state should approve NRC preparation in Kendrapara district and warned that they will launch a stir if it is not done.
PNN
