With the Election Commission carrying out revision of voters list, the district administration in Odisha's Kendrapara has started disenfranchising suspected Bangladeshis.
Ahead of the Odisha assembly elections scheduled next year, the district administration in Kendrapara has started out a process to remove the names of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from the voters list.
With the Election Commission carrying out revision of voters list, the district administration in Odisha's Kendrapara has started disenfranchising suspected Bangladeshis whose names figured in the list of electorates, officials said Sunday.
The coastal district has 1,649 Bangladeshi settlers.
Mahakalpada tehsil alone houses 1,551 of them.
So far, 137 Bangladeshis have been detected in the voters list in Mahakalpada tehsil. After thorough verification of their nativity antecedents, these foreign nationals have been removed from voters list, said Kendrapara district Collector, Dasarathi Satpathy.
The voters list revision process will continue till September 27.
The officials engaged in the exercise have been asked to ensure that none of these foreign nationals find place in the final voters list, Satpathy said.
As many as 3,987 Bangladeshis have been staying in Odisha illegally. Of them, 1,649 have been staying in coastal Kendrapara district followed by 1,112 in Paradip and Jagatsinghpur, officials said.
Of the 3,987 infiltrators, 1,551 foreign nationals from 362 families living in Mahakalpada Tehsil of Kendrapara district were served deportation notice in 2005. However, the deportation move has been kept on hold following intervention by the then union government.
In an attempt to curb influx of illegal immigrants, committees comprising revenue, police and forest officials have been formed to intensify vigil on infiltration. These panels have been working in cohesion in infiltration-affected Maakalpada and Rajnagar tehsils, they said.
Earlier in Assam in a bid to remove the illegal Bangaleshi immigrants, the National Register of Citizens was being updated.
On July 30, the second and the final draft of the National Register of Citizens of Assam (NRC) was released in Guwahati.
‘Out of 3,29,91,384 total applicants, 2,89,83,677 people have been found eligible to be included in the National Register of Citizens,’ State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela said.
The update of the NRC, a Supreme Court-monitored exercise to identify genuine Indian nationals living in Assam, excluded more than 40 lakh people from the draft list published on July 30, triggering a political controversy.
The first draft of the NRC for Assam was published on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 in accordance with the top court's direction. Names of 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated then.
Assam, which had faced influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC which was first prepared in 1951.
(With PTI inputs)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Ahead of assembly elections, Odisha removes Bangladeshi infiltrators from voters' list")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}