An ID verification exercise conducted for plantation workers in Kodagu by the district police on Thursday triggered speculations that information was being collected for National Register of Citizens (NRC) and illegal migrants, if any, would be weeded out.
The speculations gained credence in the backdrop of the current debate on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the NRC, and the confusion around it.
However, Superintendent of Police, Kodagu, Suman D. Pennekar clarified that it was a routine exercise that was done every year to ascertain the identification of workers from other parts of the country who come to Kodagu for jobs. “Besides, the police are not the agency for NRC work,” she said.
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Ms. Pennekar said there were a few cases of heinous crimes committed by migrant workers in the recent past and later the suspects could not be tracked easily as their identity and background had not been properly checked before being provided local jobs. This led to difficult in tracing them, she said.
“This exercise was not directed against workers from any particular State or any community but was conducted for all workers who have come to Kodagu in search of jobs,” Ms. Pennekar said.
She said that earlier the exercise took place at the local jurisdictional station level or the police would visit the estates to ascertain the identity of workers. But this time it was a centralised one at the taluk level as the police wanted to verify the ID proof with the details available online, she added.
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This was a one-day endeavour and a majority of them had submitted the documents and ID proof and those who could not provide the requisite documents had been provided ample time to procure them, Ms. Pennekar said.
While this would act as a preventive measure against crimes a strong message was also being sent to estate owners to ensure that they ascertained the identity of workers they hired and verified the documents, she added.