PATNA: Ram Sevak Paswan is a worried man. A resident of Malti Bedaulia village under Ujiarpur assembly constituency in Samastipur district, Paswan has no document to prove his citizenship. He only has the voter ID, MNREGA job card, Aadhaar card, and Ayushman health card issued by the authorities.
Paswan has no land of his own to claim for the Pradhanmantri Awas Yojna to build a pucca house. He owns a ‘jhopdi’ (hut) erected on the land provided by his ‘malik’ (landowner) for whom he works as a daily wager. “I never thought the day would come when I would have to prove my citizenship, decades after my birth,” he told this reporter.
His wife, Shanti Devi, engaged in household work, intervenes: “We, both husband and wife, don’t know how to read and write. We are illiterate and don’t have birth certificates. How will we prove that we are citizens of this country? It’s the government’s job to provide us with documents.”
Paswan has a query: “When Aadhar card is required for opening a bank account, why is it not a valid document to prove citizenship? After all, we got the Aadhar card after running from pillar to post. It is required for admission to government schools. Why is it not a valid document for citizenship?”
None of the IDs he has figure in the list of 11 documents required for the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.
Lochan Mahto (45), also a resident of Malti Bedaulia panchayat, has a different story to tell. Mahto, in his early 40s, stated that no official (BLO) had visited his house to provide him with the forms. “We have heard about the voter verification exercise. But to date, no official or booth-level agent has visited us to provide us with forms,” he lamented.
His wife, Savita Devi, who ekes out a living for the family of five, said, “We have a small piece of land but have not been able to build a house. Though my two sons and a daughter are enrolled in a local government school, we don’t have birth certificates to prove citizenship. We shudder at the thought of losing citizenship.”
Many residents of Malti Bedaulia village, located barely 7 km from the Samastipur district headquarters, have complained that they have not yet received the forms. The village falls under the Ujiarpur Lok Sabha constituency, represented by Union Minister of State for Home, Nityanand Rai. It has a population of about 5,000.
Amrendra Pal, 53, of Nagapath at Dehri-on-Sone in Rohtas district, contradicted the ECI’s claims that forms have been provided to all eligible electors. “There are lots of discrepancies in the distribution of forms,” he claimed. Several genuine voters will be excluded from the voter list, he feared.
Musafir Manjhi, 32, a resident of Govindpur Devi Gaura village under Davaichh panchayat in Patepur (SC) assembly constituency, Vaishali, said, “I have lost both parents and am still a bachelor. I am illiterate. I will have no option but to lose my citizenship.”