Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Bangladeshi migrants have officials at wit’s end

HYDERABAD: How are the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants managing to get ration cards, driving licences and even PAN cards? This is the million dollar question that has no answer from officials.

A fraudulently obtained ration card, in most cases, is found to be used as the basic identity card to get other official documents for these Bangladeshis. The covert and overt support of corrupt government employees cannot be ruled out. This is because even three weeks after the arrested foreigners made the startling disclosure that they fraudulently obtained ration cards, the police are yet to begin investigation to ascertain how they managed to do so. The Civil Supplies Department, which issues ration cards is not even aware of these cases, let alone fixing up responsibility on the erring employees.

Amidst reports that terrorist outfits operating from Bangladesh were responsible for the recent terrorist attacks in the city, the police launched a hunt and had so far arrested 26 Bangladeshis, who had illegally migrated to Hyderabad.

In an earlier case, ration and PAN cards were seized from a Bangladeshi youth Riduvan Gazi arrested on charge of being an operative of Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI). Police are yet to determine if there was any criminal negligence on part of the officials who issued the documents.

Bill collectors of municipal department distribute ration card forms and photographs of the applicants are taken at the Designated Photographic Location (DPL) centres. The revenue officials are to verify the applicants’ details before finalising the list of eligible candidates.

In case of pink ration cards, no cross-checking of the credentials of applicants is done because the government does not supply any subsidised groceries to these card holders. It is suspected that most of these Bangladeshis secured pink ration cards because no second verification of details was done.

When contacted, the Tappachabutra police could not confirm whether the Bangladeshis handed over to them recently possessed pink or white ration cards. “We would write to the local officials of Civil Supplies Department to confirm if it was an omission or commission,” Inspector M.S. Venugopala Rao said.

Hyderabad District Civil Supplies Officer Aleem said he was not aware of any Bangladeshi being issued ration card. “We learnt about one case issued in the name of Gazi’s father Joynal Abedin, that too through newspaper reports. No police official alerted us about the 22 Bangladeshis you’re referring,” he said.

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