“As the state government has put on hold the NPR process in the state, people got suspicious of their activities and informed us. We later arrested both persons based on complaints lodged by the local residents,” said a senior police officer of Kolkata Police.
Two persons were arrested on Tuesday night from Watganj area of Kolkata for allegedly providing people National Population Register (NPR) forms in the name of Aadhaar Card correction process, police said. Following the incident, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has decided to temporarily put on hold the process across the city.
According to police, local residents in Watganj area had queued up outside a bank to correct their Aadhaar cards. Some of them alleged that two persons, who were in charge of the process, had provided them with NPR forms. Following this, people raised an alarm and inforned police.
“As the state government has put on hold the NPR process in the state, people got suspicious of their activities and informed us. We later arrested both persons based on complaints lodged by the local residents,” said a senior police officer of Kolkata Police.
State Urban Development Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim reached the spot on Tuesday night and calmed people down. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Hakim said the KMC will suspend Aadhaar card correction process across the city till they get a clarification from the bank concerned on why such a form was distributed. “Aadhaar card correction and issuance of new Aadhaar card process were going on yesterday. A large number of people were there to collect their cards. Suddenly people noticed that NPR was mentioned in the Aadhaar correction forms. At a time when the state government has put on hold NPR process in the state and issued an official notification in this regard, then how come NPR form was made available to them? This has certainly raised questions in our minds. So we have temporarily suspended the Aadhaar card correction process till we get a clarification from the bank concerned,” said Hakim.
The BJP slammed the KMC for the latest move. “The civic body is enforcing their unilateral decision on people. West Bengal is not a foreign country that it can take such decisions at the drop of a hat. We condemn this move,” said BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya.