The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Chief Secretaries of Odisha and West Bengal to take appropriate action to protect the rights of villagers who are virtually caught in the border dispute between the two States.
The rights body issued the direction while acting on a petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer and rights activist Radhakanta Tripathy to this effect.
On record, the same people belong to two villages, Sankhamedi (Ward-18) in Bhogarai block’s Analia gram panchayat in Odisha and Bagbrajakishore (Ward-14) in neighbouring West Bengal’s Ramnagar block. While Sankhamedi has about 320 voters, Bagbrajakishore has over 700 voters, including 380 from nearby West Bengal hamlets. Even though they have been empowered with‘dual-voting’ power for the last 30 years, the Election Commission is yet to take note of it, some villagers said.
The petitioner, citing media reports, further informed the NHRC that the West Bengal Government is reportedly eyeing at least 11 villages under Bhogarai and Jaleswar tehsils along with Udaypur sea beach of Baleswar district.
Stating that the villagers are not being issued residential certificates by Odisha revenue officials as they don’t have records in the tehsil, Thripathy urged the rights body to take the denials as serious violation of human rights by the Odisha Government. He requested the commission to intervene and direct the States to resolve the issue of habitation and status of citizenry of the villagers so that possible public unrest and conflict between two States may be avoided.