63 Hindu families migrating from then East Pakistan get houses, land in BJP-ruled UP

Sixty-three Bangalee Hindu families who had migrated to India in the 1970s from the then East Pakistan, were on Tuesday (April 19, 2022) handed papers for houses and agricultural land in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state.

Each family was given two acres for agriculture purposes, a residential plot measuring 200 sq metres and a house in Kanpur Dehat district, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Speaking on the occasion, UP Chief Minister Adityanath blamed previous governments for the plight of these families.

"…I am happy granting two acres of land, 200 sq metres residential patta to each of the 63 families in Rasulabad area of Kanpur Dehat district," Adityanath said.

"All these families had migrated from East Pakistan in 1970s and were given jobs in a yarn mill in Hastinapur town of Meerut district," Adityanath said.

However, the yarn mill was shut in 1984 and nearly around 64 families kept waiting for their rehabilitation. Adityanath said previous "insensitive" governments never took them seriously.

He said it was after the BJP came back to power in UP in 2017 that these people were given the voting right.

"When Prime Minister Narendra Modi passed the order to give citizenship to the minorities migrating from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, we started searching for such people in UP also and traced the families," the UP CM added.

Adityanath said, "People who did not find shelter in nations they were natives of, where they were tortured and harassed, India embraced them with open arms by not just giving them shelter but also working on their rehabilitation."

The CM said about 407 such Bangalee Hindu families had come to India in the 1970s. Since then, many people in these families have passed away while some families totally perished.