Cooch Behar, August 02 (Siliguri Chronicle) – Dipankar Sarkar, a carpenter from Rampur village in Cooch Behar’s Boxirhat area, received two notices this year from Assam’s foreigners’ tribunal — one in January and another in March — asking him to prove he is an Indian citizen.
Sarkar is among at least six people from north Bengal who have received similar notices from Assam in recent months.
The issue came to light after Sarkar, who says he was born in Cooch Behar, began searching for documents to prove his Indian nationality. He has been visiting government offices in Calcutta and Guwahati in hopes of gathering the necessary papers.
“I received the first notice in January this year, and the second in March. After the second notice, I went to Assam and furnished a land deed and my name in the voter list of my booth. Those who checked the documents, however, were not satisfied and told me to bring some more documents to prove my point. However, they didn’t specify which documents to bring,” Sarkar said.
“I am searching for old land deeds but I don’t know what to search for,” he said.
Sarkar said he had travelled to Assam about 11 years ago with three others in search of work.
“We rented an accommodation in Guwahati and were working as carpenters. At that time, Assam police detained us and took us to the Paltan Bazaar police station of the city on suspicion that we were Bangladeshis. There, we furnished our voter and Aadhaar cards,” said Sarkar.
“We were released but were told to find out the voter list of 1966 and arrange the land deed of 1971 within a fortnight. We gave the police those documents. Our fingerprints were collected, along with our residential address and cellphone numbers. Since then, there has been no further communication from the Assam police. But these recent notices have left me worried,” he said.
On Friday, Abhijit De Bhowmik, president of the Trinamool Congress in Cooch Behar district, visited Sarkar at his home and assured him of full support.
“He will not reply to these notices any more. It is just an attempt by the BJP to create an atmosphere uncertainty among people in Cooch Behar ahead of the Assembly elections,” said Bhowmik.
