Guwahati: In what has raised many eyebrows, a 70-years old lady who migrated to Assam from Uttar Pradesh with her husband in 1945 died in pain of their children, born and brought up in Assam, being declared doubtful citizen of India.
The incident came to light only after the death of 70-years old Chhotki Devi Prajapati whose son Dinesh Prajapati and daughter-in-law Tara Devi are languishing in detention camp in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district.
Informing that Chhotki Devi had migrated to Assam with her husband Parshuram Prajapati, in 1945 from Balia district of Uttar Pradesh, office bearers of All Assam Bhojpuri Students Union said that the family was surviving on small farmland and a house given by the government under Indira Awas Yojna Scheme.
Parshuram Prajapati who passed away few years back had two sons--Dinesh and Rajesh and three daughters all of them born and married in Assam.
The mother, who was looking after five children (mostly below the age of 15) of Dinesh, presently languishing in detention camp, fell sick after her son Dinesh and daughter-in-law were declared as doubtful citizen and asked to face trial in the foreigners tribunal. Dinesh and his wife, struggling with poverty and livelihood for survival could not appear before the tribunal and about three months back, police arrested them and sent to the detention camp.
“Since then mother Chhotki Devi was running from pillar to post to get her son released. No body could help her and subsequently she fell sick and died on Friday,” said the residents of the area. The residents also informed that after the death of grandmother, villagers are looking after the livelihood of five children of Dinesh who and his wife were categorised as D-voter (Doubtful voter).
Expressing his deep anguish and pain over Tinsukia incident, Assam BJP MLA Ashok Singhal who recently led a delegation of Hindi-speaking people of Assam to meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told this newspaper that such harassment of genuine Indian citizens must be stopped.
Pointing out that hundreds of such Hindi-speaking people are facing harassment in the ongoing process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC), officials of All Assam Bhojpuri Students Union Ajay Singh and Awadhesh Rastogi said that there are dozens of such cases in which people, who have migrated to Assam from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have been declared non-citizen in Assam.
Asserting that Hindi-speaking people want that all the foreigners should detected and deported but in the process Hindi-speaking people should not be targeted. He regretted that assurance of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has failed to give any respite to them.
Claiming that majority of those left out are daily wageworker, member of Hindi Bikash Parishad Vakil Rai said that organisations representing Hindi-speaking communities living in Assam for generations have sought intervention after non-inclusion of a significant number of Hindi-speaking people in the complete and final draft of the National Register of Citizens declared on July 30.
