There is a reason why the men and women of Dinhata will vote only on Thursday, unlike the rest of northern Bengal.
The constituency bordering Bangladesh in northern Bengal has 9,776 voters who have recently become Indian citizens – all of them voting for the first time in their lives.
A land swap agreement between India and its eastern neighbour in mid-2015 has given the people of 160-odd enclaves here a home. Disputes surrounding land demarcation, which cropped following Partition, had meant the inhabitants of these enclaves belonged to both countries, and perhaps neither.
It was the administration’s insistence that the new citizens first get their voter identity cards that led to the delay in elections in this constituency in northern Bengal – the remainder of the region had gone to the polls in mid and early April.
Of the 15,606 people who opted for Indian citizenship after the land swap agreement, 6,577 are Hindus; 9,188 are Muslims and 21 are Christians. “They are now free to do whatever an India citizen can do,” a senior office from West Bengal government, who oversaw the process told BusinessLine .
The Centre has provided ₹1,005.99 crore for the development of the enclaves. “Yes, sale of land is their main issue. We have taken that up with the Centre. We hope the Indian and Bangladeshi governments will find a solution for the problem,” the official said.
“We had given them training on the voting procedure. We had held street plays and a run for democracy programme to give a message to these new voters that voting is important,” another official said.
Happy at ‘home’ Seventy-four-year-old Gojeen Barman is happy that he will vote, for the first time in his life. He hopes the government will address his only concern — his 10 bighas in Bangladesh. “To join India, I left my farming land in Bangladesh. Now, I don’t have any work. To make a living here, I have to sell my land. I hope the Central and State governments will do something,” he said. He says he will be happy if the government were to give him an allowance until he is able to sell his land.
Muzamil Khan and his family had chose to be Indians too. “We are happy here. More than that, we are free,” Khan said, and added that good education for his children is one reason he chose India over Bangladesh. But like Barman, the 54-year-old Khan is also concerned about his land.
“We have got MGNREGA job cards here along with a voter identity and Aadhaar cards. We got manual jobs under the scheme for some days. But unless we are able to sell our land, it will be difficult to live. Unless we go there, we may not be able to expedite the process. So, we shall be given special permission to visit Bangladesh until we sell our land,” Khan said.
Deepak Barman, 20, also chose India for education. He scored a first division in plus-two from a college in Rangpur, Bangladesh. “I want to study political science. I want the government’s help to join a good college here,” Barman said.
Which party scores? The Trinamool Congress and the BJP are more popular among the new voters. Many thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the permanent solution to the problems of the enclaves. The infrastructure that the Mamata Banerjee government has provided over the last year gives the TMC a slight edge in the enclaves. The promise to 922 people living in temporary shelters includes a house in two years.
“We are happy with the facilities provided. We hope we will get ration cards and other facilities soon. The most important thing is the freedom we enjoy here,” MM Hossain, another new voter says.
Divided families Officials are also busy addressing other issues as well. Sharoar Alam’s wife Marina and his two kids did not get permission to travel to India. Alam is eagerly awaiting his family.
So is Mofizuddin, whose brother’s family is still in Bangladesh. Crèches and mid-day meals for children have also been arranged by the State government.
Lovely Bibi of Karala village enclave wants better education for her children. Roopali Devi, her neighbour, feels she can now go freely to Delhi or Kolkata, in search of a construction job. The new voters are busy building their lives.
Even in the shelters they are cultivating vegetables. “We are farmers. We will not sit idle,” says Rahman who grows vegetables beside the shelter.