05-West Bengal.pdf - People's watch

FF Code : W.B. / MON ( Julfikar Ali)/
District- Murshidabad/ Feb- 25/02/2008/ Sl.No.-167
Victim(s) : Villagers of Char Rajanagar
Perpetrator(s) : BSF Officials
Location : Char Rajanagar, Raninagar
Date of incident : February 2008
Case Details:
The villagers of Char Rajanagar, falling under the jurisdiction of Raninagar Police station, are cultivators.
Their fields are located in the border. The BSF Officials have posted their camps inside the village, 8 to
10 kilometers away from the original border, because of the erosion of lands into River Padma. The
farming lands of the villagers are located beyond the camps, as a result of which the villagers had to
submit their voter identity cards standing in a long queue every day before going to their fields. Thus a
huge area has become vacant near the border due to the posting of camps inside the village. The
victims also faced problems in building temporary houses to keep their machinery and tools, as they
had to seek permission from the BSF Officials to build these. Moreover the villagers are also restricted
to harvest crops, and the crops cultivated already were taken away by the Bangladeshi infiltrators. The
victims were not able to rear their cattle which was another source of livelihood for them. They had to
collect ‘no objection certificate’ to cultivate in their own land. On 8 th January 2008 a mass petition signed
by 158 local villagers was submitted before Mr. Biswas, the BDO, who in turn replied that the victims
have to follow the rules of the border.
West Bengal
482
Annual Report on Torture
2007