After Bulldozer Comes Eraser

Rokibuz Zaman

Ibrahim Ali was among those evicted from Kachutali in September. His name may also be struck off the voter list of the area.

In September, Ibrahim Ali’s home in Assam’s Kamrup district was flattened by bulldozers.

This was part of the state government’s eviction drive against alleged illegal settlers in Kachutali village. Three days later, two men were killed in police firing when the officials returned to chase the displaced families off the land.

For Ali, a 33-year-old driver, that was not the end of his difficulties.

Around November 17, Ali, his elder brother Saheb Ali and sister-in-law Jorina Begum received separate notices from the electoral registration officer, informing them that their names might be deleted from the voters’ list of the Dimoria Assembly constituency.

The reason cited by the electoral registration officer was that they had “ceased to be ordinarily resident” in the constituency after their eviction. However, Ali has been living in makeshift huts made of tin and covered by tarpaulin sheets in the same village, not far from his earlier home.

 Such notices were served on over 1,000 Kachutali residents–one-third of its voters–many of whom had been evicted in the September drive.

The election officer of Kamrup Metropolitan district, Manash Jyoti Bora, saidthat the notices were sent as part of a special summary revision of the electoral roll.

Such an exercise involves reviewing the voter list annually and unveiling a draft electoral roll.

“A re-verification process of 3,000 voters from Kachutali, where the eviction took place, is going on,” Bora said. “The verification of 500 people has been done and most of their names will be deleted.”

The notices written in English, seen by Scroll, summoned Ali and the others to appear before the Dimoria electoral registration officer on November 20, to record their opposition–if any–to the proposed deletion of their names. If they did not appear, their names would be deleted without informing them, the notice said.

Even though the notice was issued on November 5, they were handed over to the residents three-four days before the hearing.

“The notice was in English. Initially, we did not understand what it said,” Ali said.

Over 400 residents, all of them from the Bengali-origin Muslim community in Kachutali, went to appear for the hearing. Ali was among them. During the hearing, Ali and others signed the notice they had received and a register book.

According to Ali, an official told them that their names would be deleted from the electoral roll in Dimoria. “Our homes have already been demolished,” Ali said. “If they delete our names from the voter list, our harassment will only increase. They anyway call us outsiders, and doubtful voters. Our citizenship will be doubted even more.”

In Assam, Muslims of Bengali-origin are often vilified as illegal immigrants and their citizenship is contested even though their ancestors migrated to the state before Partition.

This is a rare instance of authorities purging the electoral roll of the names of those turned homeless by an eviction drive. In truth “eviction or demolition cannot deprive an eligible person of his right to vote.” But in Assam government officials hardly bother about law of the land.

 According to leaders of the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party, the drive was being carried out on the instructions of Chief Minister HimantaBiswaSarma. “These people have come from different places and started to live in this tribal belt in the last 20 years,” said DibyajyotiMedhi, a BJP member from Sonapur. “This has changed the demography significantly. They have availed government benefits and schemes. Their names have been included in the electoral rolls and they got government houses. All these issues were brought to the notice of the chief minister and he immediately instructed for reverification [of the electoral roll].”

Ali’s family had settled in Kachutali from Rajapukhuri area in Darrang district around 23 years ago. “My parents voted at Rajapukhuri but we first voted in Kachutali only,” Ali said. “I voted in Kachutali two or three times.”

Medhi added that Kachutali had been declared a tribal belt in 1950, and so the evicted, most of whom are Bengal-origin Muslims, could no longer stay there. “After the eviction, only those who have documents proving they came here prior to 1950 can stay in Kachutali.”

The notices to Ali and other Kachutali residents were issued under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

Under Section 22 of the Representation of the People Act 1950, the electoral registration officer for a constituency can correct the entries in electoral rolls if any erroneous or defective entry is found, or if voters have changed their “place of ordinary residence” within the constituency–provided voters have been given “a reasonable opportunity to be heard”.

Bora explained: “As the eviction took place, they are not ordinary residents of Kachutali anymore, their names will be deleted. They have to register themselves under different polling stations.”

However, according to the Election Commission of India’s manual, a homeless resident does not need to provide documentary proof to be able to vote.

The EC manual says: “In case of homeless persons, the booth level officer will visit the address given in Form 6 at night [for two nights in a row] to ascertain that the homeless person actually sleeps at the place which is given as his address. If the officer is able to verify that the homeless person actually sleeps at that place, no documentary proof of place of residence shall be necessary.”

To avoid “an eventuality of a homeless foreign national getting registered,” as a voter, “the booth level officer should record the person’s statement about the place of his birth and the place of previous residence.”

Several Kachutali residents, already struggling with the challenges that come from being uprooted, were worried about the difficulties in getting their names back on the electoral roll in a new place.

[The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children and Man over Machine—A Path to Peace.]

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Vol 57, No. 26, Dec 22 - 28, 2024