With Chief Minister Harish Rawat having sounded concerned over possible rise in Maoist activity in Uttarakhnad in the aftermath of an earthquake in neighbouring Nepal, the presence of Bangladeshi nationals in Nainital is worrisome too. A majority of the people staying in Nainital city’s Harinagar slum area is said to be those of Bangladeshi origin. What is a matter of concern is that neither Nainital district administration nor the district police nor the municipal council, Nainital, has any record of the families settled in the slum areas of the lake city.
However, rising up to the occasion, District Magistrate Nainital, Deepak Rawat, has ordered an inquiry to ascertain whether those living in the slums are from Bangladeshi origin or from West Bengal or from other parts of the country. He asked the officials concerned to conduct a survey of the said slum areas and do verification of the families who are living in there.
The common refrain running there is that people of doubtful identities are dominating Harinagar’ Dhobighat and its adjacent parts. “Unless the administration and police step in things might prove grim in the coming days. Their role so far is apathetic and this is what is emboldening the migrants to settle here in more and more numbers,” said a senior citizen from Nainital.
However, Bangladeshi nationals living in some parts of Uttarakhand, particularly in Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital, is not a new phenomenon. There are reasons to believe that many of these people have enrolled themselves in the electoral rolls and obtained ration cards by dubious means in connivance with the unscrupulous politicians greedy for the votes. “Nothing has been done to have their identities checked so far with the administration and police sleeping over the infiltration menace slowly changing the demographic structure of some of the hill districts of the State,” lamented a resident of the lake district.