Voter List: Indian district deletes names of suspected Bangladeshis

The authorities in a district of the eastern Indian state of Odisha have started deleting the names of suspected Bangladeshis who figured in the list of voters, officials said.

The coastal district of Kendrapara has 1,649 Bangladeshi settlers.  Mahakalpada tehsil alone houses 1,551 of them, they said on Sunday.

Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal has backed the Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign for deporting illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in Assam state.

BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav had last week said his party-led government would "detect, delete (from list of citizens) and deport" illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

Odisha will witness fresh state legislative assembly elections in the coming months.  So far, 137 Bangladeshis have been detected in the voters list in Mahakalpada tehsil. After thorough verification of their antecedents, these people have been removed from voters list, said Kendrapara Collector Dasarathi Satpathy. 

The voter list revision process will continue till September 27.

The officials engaged in the exercise have been asked to ensure that none of the "foreign" nationals finds a place in the final voters list, Satpathy said.

As many as 3,987 Bangladeshis have been staying in Odisha illegally. Of them, 1,649 have been staying in coastal Kendrapara district followed by 1,112 in Paradip and Jagatsinghpur, officials said.

Of the 3,987 people, 1,551 from 362 families living in Mahakalpada tehsil of Kendrapara district were served deportation notice in 2005. However, the deportation move has been kept on hold following intervention by the then federal Indian government.

In an attempt to curb influx of illegal immigrants, committees comprising revenue, police and forest officials have been formed to intensify vigil on illegal immigrants.