Kolkata, Nov 18 (PTI) Residents of several fire-hit slums in Kolkata, from Topsia’s Majdoorpara to the makeshift settlements under New Alipore’s Durgapur bridge, are gripped by mounting anxiety as identity documents lost in recent blazes now threaten their exclusion in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Across these pockets, the fear is the same: without Aadhaar, voter cards or PAN cards, many worry they may be marked as “non-existent” on the rolls in this year’s verification exercise.
For hundreds who have constructed makeshift homes with tarpaulin sheets, tin plates or whatever remained after the fire incidents, the loss of identity documents is proving far harder a hit than that of the homes themselves.
Binapani Mondal sat outside the skeletal frame of her rebuilt hut at Pagladanga, still haunted by the April blaze that tore through their canal-side settlement.
Her biggest fear concerns her elder son Rajesh, who works at a grill factory in Gujarat. His Aadhaar, voter ID and PAN card were all reduced to ashes that night.
“I managed to get back my own papers, but his are gone. What if they say he is not from here? What if they throw him out?” Mondal told a news channel, her voice breaking as BLOs continue to visit the locality with forms, lists and verification sheets.
Swapna spent weeks navigating government offices, returning multiple times for biometrics, photographs and affidavits. But because Rajesh works outside the state, his reapplications remain pending.
“He will come in December, but what if that is too late?” she said.
The dread is not confined to just one neighbourhood.
Under the Durgapur bridge in New Alipore, a cluster of families who lost their homes in a fire in December last year have similar worries. Baby Das lives in a makeshift shelter where a tin roof is held down by bricks to prevent it from blowing away in the winds.
“My Aadhaar is reissued. But my voter card is still pending. I am very scared,” she said.
Her husband Bikash had managed to save his documents by rushing inside their burning hut moments before it collapsed, but Baby’s documents, kept separately, could not be retrieved.
“What if they separate us? What if they say she has no papers?” he asked, echoing concerns that have now become a daily conversation in these settlements.
In Topsia’s Majdoorpara, where a fire levelled a row of huts, the situation is similar. Some residents were able to salvage a few documents, while most, caught in the sudden blaze, could not.
“I grabbed one bag, Aadhaar, voter card, PAN, and ran,” Ayesha Khatun said.
Standing beside her, another woman said, “She saved hers. But what about those who couldn’t?” Many refused to speak openly, wary of the implications as the SIR teams are moving door to door.
Even those who have managed partial restorations remain anxious. Tarun Haldar, who has received his reissued Aadhaar and voter cards, now worries for his daughter Minta. Her Aadhaar is still pending, and her voter card application is incomplete.
Calling from Delhi, where she is staying with her young child, Minta said, “My voter card is still not done. I will return in the first week of December. First thing I will do is apply again. I just hope it is not too late.” Local municipal councillor Jiban Saha said compensation for burnt homes is being processed under municipal norms.
“And for those whose Aadhaar or voter cards were destroyed, we are coordinating with officials so that the SIR process does not cause them any hardship,” he said.
But on the ground, reassurance has not eased fears.
In a city where thousands live under bridges, on pavements and along canals, fire incidents are not unusual. What is unusual this year is that the blazes have collided with a state-wide verification drive, leaving the poorest fearing that the loss of their burnt identity documents may now erase their identity itself. PTI PNT NN
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