Mass evictions of people living in slums across cities, using force, allegations of harbouring ‘illegal migrants’ have acquired phenomenal pace in the past few months. Calling out certain demographics, like Muslims and those who speak in Bengali, as non-citizens and housing them in ‘holding centres’ has made the exercise acquire a menacing character. The Wire reports on people vital to building city infrastructure, living on the margins, now suddenly finding their citizenship challenged.
Barpeta (Assam): On the evening of July 15, 37-year-old brick kiln labourer Taher Ali was resting in a tarpaulin tent in Charuabakhra village. His home had been demolished by the district administration on July 8. Ali received a message that read: “Thank you for submitting form on VSP. Your reference ID is S0301D7S1*********531, ECI.”
Never formally educated, Taher Ali rushed to the tent of a neighbour who could read and write. The neighbour informed him that a “Form 7” had been uploaded to the portal of the Election Commission of India to remove his name from the electoral rolls. Form 7 used to file objections to the inclusion of a name in the rolls.
On July 8, the Dhubri district administration demolished over thousands of houses at the proposed thermal power plant site near the Bilasipara area of the Chapar revenue circle. Residents claimed the count was 2,000. Officials said 1,400 were destroyed. Most of the evicted families are East Bengal-origin Muslims.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.