Kolkata: Hundreds of people lined up at government and municipal offices here and across West Bengal Tuesday to collect their birth certificates and necessary documents to be in readiness should NRC be implemented in the state despite assurances by the TMC government that it would not be allowed.
The omission of a large number of Hindu Bengalis from the final NRC list in BJP-ruled Assam has apparently created panic among the people and has allegedly led to six deaths in the state so far.
Large queues were seen outside Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) headquartersand other division offices in the city and BDO offices in other parts of Bengal as people waited for their turn to search for land and other necessary documents.
“I have come to the KMC office to collect my birth certificate as I had lost it long back. I have heard that we need to have our birthcertificates to prove that we are citizens of this country in case NRC is implemented in Bengal,” said 75-year-old Ajit Ray, who was standing outside KMC headquarters.
55-year-old Bimal Mondal was seen standing outside the land records department of KMC, in search of documents of land procurement in Kolkata by his parents five decades ago.
In rural Bengal similar picture was witnessed outside various government and panchayat offices. “What will we do if we are declared foreigners though we were born and brought up in this country ? From where will I get documents of my father being born in this country?” 25-year-old Khalque Mollah of South 24 Parganas district said.
According to government sources, six people have died so far in the districts. Two of them allegedly committed suicide after failing to procure old documents and four others died after falling ill while standing in queues with thousands of villagers at different government offices to get their documents. (PTI)
