Foiled Centre’s conspiracy of Aadhaar invalidation: Mamata

Kolkata: A day when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed to have foiled the conspiracy of the central government regarding the deactivation of Aadhaar cards, the state government received 272 fresh complaints of such invalidation through the Aadhaar Grievances Portal and WhatsApp chatbot that was made functional from Tuesday.

According to Nabanna sources, the majority of the complaints on Wednesday have been received from Cooch Behar, Malda, Darjeeling, Hooghly and North 24-Parganas. On the first day (Tuesday), of the portal’s launch, at least 150 complaints were received.

“We have foiled the conspiracy of the Centre on invalidation of Aadhaar. This is Bengal and not any other state,” Banerjee said addressing a state programme to commemorate the occasion of International Mother Language Day at Deshapriya Park.

Banerjee alleged that the Centre had resorted to such exercise of Aadhaar deactivation for the purpose of implementation of NRC and sending people in Bengal to detention camps.

“By what right have you invalidated Aadhaar cards of the Matua community? Everybody is in the dark about the reason. Deactivation of Aadhaar means that they will be branded as foreigners for the next five years. Then they will be issued a card. This is a political game ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. But I am dead against such political games. I believe in people’s rights,” Banerjee said. Meanwhile, reports of activation of deactivated cards have also started coming from West Midnapore as well as from Jamalpur in East Burdwan. Chairman of West Bengal Namasudra Development Board Mukul Bairagya said on Wednesday that a good number of deactivated Aadhaar cards have been activated.

Banerjee on Monday had asked people to whose Aadhaar cards have been deactivated to lodge complaints details along with their respective invalidation communique received from the Centre through Aadhaar grievance portal.

She assured that the state will issue an alternative card to them which will guarantee their entitlement to all social welfare schemes as well as citizenship rights.