PITHORAGARH: Several people living along the international border in Pithoragarh and Champawat districts of Uttarakhand have dual citizenship of India and Nepal, and such people are being identified, an official said.
"We have found such cases in Pithoragarh's Jhulaghat and some areas of Champawat district on the Indo-Nepal border. The district administrations concerned have been informed about this," D N Bhombe, Deputy Inspector General, Almora region of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), said.
The SSB officer said that the personnel deployed in all the 54 border outposts of the force in Uttarakhand are trying to identify such people living in the Indian territory, who have dual citizenship of India and Nepal. He said the SSB is also taking the help of the district administrations concerned in this regard.
Pithoragarh Deputy District Magistrate Anil Kumar Shukla said there are two types of Nepalese living in India. He said the first category is of those women who got married and came to India, but neither gave up their Nepalese citizenship nor acquired Indian citizenship.
Shukla said the second category is of those people whose entire family came from Nepal and settled in India without taking Indian citizenship.
"We have found many cases in which they fraudulently obtained Aadhaar cards and voter ID cards in India. We immediately cancelled their fake documents," he added.
The deputy inspector general of the SSB said that apart from the smuggling of wild animals' body parts and drugs, we are also giving priority to preventing human trafficking, and we have formed special teams for this. He said the SSB personnel keep close contact with the villagers living in the border areas in order to gain information about the arrival of any outsider there.