Concerns Arise Over Deactivation of Aadhaar Cards in Malda and Cooch Behar: Citizenship at Stake?

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) recently sent letters to at least eight citizens in the districts of Malda and Cooch Behar informing them that their Aadhaar numbers had been deactivated. The villagers are confused by this news.

Every grantee comes from a community that is part of Scheduled Caste. They worry that they would lose their Indian citizenship and lose access to services provided by the federal and state governments.


The letter was received on Tuesday by three family members, one of whom is a kid, who reside in the Bakshinagar-Khottapara region under the Aiho panchayat in the Habibpur block of Malda.

Their Aadhaar numbers are no longer operational, it said. The family feels powerless and anticipates that they will not be able to get foodgrain from ration stores and that they would not receive advantages similar to those of Lakshmir Bhandar. They are concerned about being able to withdraw money from the bank, said Amrit Haldar, a young Trinamul leader of the block and the family's neighbor who want to remain anonymous.

Haldar alerted the block administration and party officials about the problem.

Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister, and other Trinamul officials have been outspoken in recent days against the letters that individuals in various regions of the state received deactivating their Aadhaar.

Mamata attacked the Center for attempting to violate people's rights and even said that her administration will provide them with a replacement card if necessary.

But in an attempt to limit the damage, saffron party officials are characterizing the Aadhaar deactivation as a "technical glitch" ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Halder, a young leader from Trinamul, stated that details about the family were recorded by authorities at the block office.

They possess several papers, including voter picture identification cards and ration cards. According to Haldar, the authorities are also perplexed as to why their Aadhaar cards were revoked.

In a same vein, several residents in the Cooch Behar area have received letters. Over the phone, Sujit Barman, a Mumbai resident of Dinhata-II block with his family, informed this newspaper that the letter indicated his son's seven-year-old Aadhaar number had been canceled.

Sujit said, "I have no idea why this happened and what to do next."

These kinds of letters were recently received by four more Dinhata subdivision homeowners. They are all members of the Rajbanshi group.

"We have been frantically trying to activate my mother's (50-year-old Dudhu Barman) Aadhaar number. Her Aadhaar card was deleted, according to a letter she got from the UIDAI a few days ago. We don't know why that was done, Dinhata resident Apan Barman remarked.

Trinamul officials in Cooch Behar, including the party's spokesman in the district, Partha Pratim Roy, have said that the BJP-led government is attempting to take away people's citizenship.

The BJP government's plan to steal the citizenship of Namashudras, Rajbanshis, and members of other backward groups is all that it is. Such tactics are ineffective, according to Roy.

The district BJP officials made an effort to reassure residents that they should not worry. The president of the BJP in Malda North (an organizational district), Ujjwal Dutta, said, "We are aware of it (the letters), and our state party leaders have already brought up the matter with central ministers."

We have no doubt that a resolution will be reached soon. Dutta said, "We will get in touch with everyone whose Aadhaar cards have been deactivated in this way and reassure them that they need not worry."

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.