Assam: 22 years on, RTI finds removes doubts about 33 'D-voters'

By: Syeda Ambia Zahan

GUWAHATI: Twenty-two years after 33 people were denied the right to exercise their franchise for being ‘D-voters’, a Right to Information (RTI) report has revealed that there are no official records to merit such a classification. This came to light after the 33 people filed RTI applications seeking to know why they were labelled as ‘D-voters’.

‘D-voters’, referred to as doubtful, is a category of people who do not have any right to take part in elections.

In 1997, about 3,70,000 people were declared D-voters after the Election Commission on July 17 that year directed the Assam government to remove non-citizens from the electoral list. Following this, a door-to-door survey was carried out to identify genuine citizens and those who could not provide evidence to prove that they were citizens of the country, were marked with “D” in the electoral rolls. Many were labelled “D” for not being present during the survey.

The 33 people, from Jania and Kalgachia subdivisions in Barpeta district, filed these applications in June this year, addressing to the public information officer of the Office of the Election Commission of India . In the applications, they asked under which provision they were labelled as D-voters, and sought a report.

The Election Commission of India forwarded the applications on July 26 to the chief electoral officer, Assam, in Dispur, undersigned by Harjeet Kaur, under secretary and central public information officer.

On July 30, the election office of Assam forwarded the applications undersigned by Sachindra Das, under secretary and state public information officer, to deputy commissioner of Barpeta as district election officers and ERO concerned where the applicants belong to.

The Barpeta Election Office on August 13 wrote to the state election officer and additional deputy commissioner — the first appellate authority — that the requisite information was not available as official records in the election branch of the office of district election officer, Barpeta. It said the record may be collected from the office of the circle officer of Kalgachia revenue circle.

The office of the circle officer, while furnishing details of the RTI application, said, “According to the records, the D-mark is seen to have been put in 1997, but no such records of putting the D-mark is available in the office of the undersigned.”

All the 33 applicants received the same reply from the office on November 13 and 14.

Fulchan Ali, 38, one of the 33 applicants, said, “I got to know that I am tagged as D-Voter after the draft NRC was published. When my name was not in the list, I enquired about the cause of exclusion and that is how I found out. Since then I have been attending three hearings of claims.”

Another applicant, Shahjahan Ali, 42, said, “I got to know that I have been tagged as a D-voter when I went to cast my vote during the 2011 assembly elections. But I was never served any notice by the Foreigners’ Tribunal or the border police branch. I decided to file the RTI application when my family was removed from the NRC list because I am a D-voter.”

Abdul Khaleque, Congress MP from Barpeta, said, “An inquiry should be initiated on those responsible for incorrectly branding these people as D-voters and harassing them for so long. There are many instances where the border police makes references to tag someone as D-voter according to their whim and fancies.”