KOLKATA: A Bangladeshi couple have finally received Indian citizenship after spending 35 years in Nadia district of West Bengal.
Laturam Sikdar and his wife Padma Sikdar have been staying at Kamgachhi Joypur under Nadia’s Taherpur police station area for the past 35 years. Laturam used to stay at Sanatanpur in Bangladesh while Padma was a resident of Panditpur, before coming to India.
The couple had managed to get Aadhaar cards a few years after entering India, but could not include their names to voters’ list in the last Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 2002 in the state.
The couple is relieved after becoming citizens of India on Monday. “We were in tremendous tension soon after dates of the SIR exercise were announced during the end of October. Sensing trouble we applied for citizenship at a CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) camp on 10 October and got the certificates on 19 November,” said Padma.
“We are very happy because we can cast our votes from now. We were born in Bangladesh but brought up in Nadia district. With launching of the SIR process in the state, we became panicked because our names were not listed in the 2002 SIR of electoral rolls. Following the Government of India’s previous announcement in connection with CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC) guidelines we visited CAA camps and applied for citizenships,” Laturam said.
“Minorities in Bangaladesh are brutally tortured by the Muslim fundamentalists in the country. It was unbearable to us and we left for India,” he added.
Partha Sarathi Chattyerjee, local BJP MLA from Ranaghat Uttar Paschim assembly constituency, told media, “We had been assuring the couple not to get panicked. Finally, they got the citizenship cards and others can also get citizenship if they apply to the concerned authority seeking CAA cards following proper methods.”