The Bankura district administration on Thursday confirmed Gangadhar Pramanik’s name on the electoral roll, the process completed within a month of the 33-year-old migrant labourer’s return home to Bankura’s Radhanagar village after spending over three years in a detention centre in Assam for those declared “foreigners”.

“The person detained in Assam for over three years is now enrolled in the electoral roll of the district. His voter identity card (EPIC) will be issued after draft publishing of the roll. We will also arrange other documents he requires. After field verification, we started the work to get him the required documents within two days of his return to his village,” said K. Radhika Aiyar, the Bankura district magistrate.

After Gangadhar returned home following an initiative by Citizens for Justice and Peace, a platform of human rights defenders, state government officials visited Radhanagar and checked land papers and other relevant documents of his family. They also visited the primary school where he studied till Class IV and confirmed that he is an Indian.

Officials said they did all formalities, including submission of electoral forms along with voter identity cards of his parents and land papers. A field verification by a block level officer was also done.

Gangadhar, 33, had left his remote village in Bankura in search of work around 10 years ago. He ended up spending over three years at a detention centre, officially called “transit camp”, in Assam’s Goalpara after he was declared a foreigner.

As a migrant worker, Gangadhar had moved to Assam in search of work to help his poor family. In December 2017, while working at a roadside eatery on the outskirts of Guwahati, he was declared a foreigner and sent to the detention centre in Goalpara.

“I am very happy that my name has made it to the electoral roll. I also want my Aadhaar card to prove that I am not a foreigner,” said Gangadhar from Bankura.

Bappa Layek, the owner of the sweetmeat shop, said Gangadhar had joined the job last month and it was helping him come out of the trauma.

“The detention had traumatised him. He had stopped talking to anyone. But now he is better. I always request my customers to interact with him,” said Layek.

The CJP officials were overwhelmed when told about Gangadhar’s inclusion on the electoral roll. The representative of the organisation not only helped the Bankura man get bail from the Assam tribunal but accompanied him to reach his home in Radhanagar village of Bankura. The CJP officials thanked the Bengal government for the initiative.

“A month and three days after Gangadhar Pramanik returned home in Bankura with help of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), the Bengal district administration confirmed his registration on the electoral roll bringing more meaning to his renewed life at home. After being shorn off all rights and thrown into a detention camp in Assam for no crime at all, this action is prompt, humane, much deserved and appreciated by human rights organisations and most of all the hapless individuals and communities we represent,” said Teesta Setalvad, human rights activist and CJP secretary.

“We hope it will send a strong message to the Assam police to stop such acts of discriminatory detention without any basis in fact or law,” she added.

Officials in Bankura said once he receives the EPIC card, Gangadhar would be eligible to work under government schemes, if he wants.

The original piece may be read here