With the political parties getting ready for elections due early next year, the district administration in the coastal town of Kendrapada has begun a process to strike out illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from the voters’ list.
As per official sources, as many as 137 Bangladeshi nationals have been detected in the electoral list in the district so far during the revision process. These Bangladeshis’ names have found mention in the list in Mahakalpada tehsil. The district administration has removed these individuals from the list after a thorough verification of their antecedents.
The Election Commission has begun the voters’ list verification process, which is set to conclude on September 27.
“While the verification of the voters’ list is on, 137 Bangladeshi immigrants have been detected so far. Their names have been struck off from the list forthwith,” Kendrapada Collector Dasarathi Satpathy informed.
As per official data, Kendrapada district accounts for 1,649 Bangladeshi settlers of which 1,551 alone are in Mahakalpada tehsil. These suspected immigrants from 362 families living in Mahakalpada had been served deportation notice in 2005. However, the process was halted owing to intervention by the Central Government.
The official figures further reflect that as many as 3,987 Bangladeshis have settled in Odisha illegally. Kendrapada district accounts for the highest number of illegal Bangladeshi settlers followed by Jagatsinghpur.
It may be mentioned that around 40 lakh people were left out in the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) drive carried out in Assam, the document of which was published in July this year.