As per official sources, not less than 500 Bangaladeshi infiltrators have settled illegally in recent past in the coastal pockets of Mahakalpada block in Kendrapada district.
According to Mahakalpada BDO Kailash Chandra Behera, Bangladeshi infiltrators have allegedly settled illegally at Kajalapatia, Batighar, Jamboo, Kharanashi and Ramnagar villages. They have managed to get the voter identity cards and other documents to prove themselves as Indian citizens by slyly changing their surnames with the help of their relatives, who earlier through same tactic became Indians. Without the support of the locals, it has become a difficult task to identify between a Bangladeshi infiltrator and an Indian.
The BDO informed that the Bangladeshi infiltrators, who recently came to these coastal parts and managed to settle slyly with the help of their relatives, possessed arms and revolvers.
The infiltrators by greasing the palms of venal officials managed to enlist their names in the recently published voter list of Mahakalapada block. BDO Behera said taking the allegation seriously, he has directed his staff to conduct a thorough inquiry by re-verifying documents of Bengali-speaking people in all the Bengali dominated nine gram panchayats of the blocks. If those who fail to submit the proper and valid documents to prove themselves as Indians, the inquiry team will delete their names in the voter lists.
More than 60 Bangladeshi infiltrators' names have been deleted from the voter lists recently. But due to shortage of staff, a proper enumeration drive of the suspected Bangaldeshi immigrants is not possible. If the district administration provides man power, then the drive would be taken to its logical end, said Behera.
It has become a concern in coastal parts of the district following unabated intrusion of Bangladeshis despite tight sea surveillance. The numbers of Bengali speaking voters have increased unexpectedly as it has proved from the recently published voter list that several foreign nationals ,who were between the age group of 25 to 45 years ,were enlisted for the first time in the voter lists .These Bangladeshi infiltrators managed to intrude in the coastal Kendrapara district via sea route to visit to their relatives and also to work in their prawn farms. later they managed to settle in the coastal patches by denuding the mangroves forest in order to establish a dollar spinning prawn business near the coast.
According to sources, the Bangladeshi immigrants have infiltrated into the coastal district in two phases. The influx of Bangladeshi nationals had started in 1947 during the partition of Bangladesh and it became more pronounced after the Bangladeshi liberation War in 1971. The trend has been going non-stop since then. In the year 1956, nearly 1,250 Bangla immigrants were rehabilitated as registered refugees and resettled in the coastal pockets of Mahakalapada and Rajnagar blocks. During the 1980s the number of immigrants were only 20,000 , but now their number is doubled , alleged intellectual masses.
Most of the Bangla immigrants have been coming from the districts of Jashore, Khulna, Barishal and Faridpur of Bangladesh.