As protests against the Citizensip (Amendment) Act and the National Register for Citizens continue, two women mistaken for conducting surveys for the CAA and NRC were attacked in Rajasthan and West Bengal on Wednesday, 22 January.
In West Bengal’s Birbhum, the house of a 20-year-old woman was set on fire by a mob on Wednesday, following rumours that she was collecting data for the proposed nationwide NRC, PTI reported.
Chumki Khatun has been working for an NGO on contract. In partnership with an online firm, the NGO was training rural women to use smartphones effectively. Khatun was collecting general data, as part of the training, local sources told PTI.
Khatun and her family are now under police protection after the incident, the officials said.
However, police have denied that the incident was linked to the NRC.
Rampurhat's sub-divisional police officer Soumajit Barua said, “We didn't find any link to the NRC. The incident happened over some village matter. We have initiated an investigation, the situation is now under control.”
In a similar incident, a surveyor from the National Economic Census department was roughed up by the public in Rajasthan’s Kota.
Naziran Bano, who went to conduct survey regarding Economic Census 2019-20, was manhandled by people who alleged that the survey was for CAA, ANI reported.
“They snatched my phone and deleted mobile application containing data entry of about 1000 households,” Bano alleged.
(With inputs from ANI & PTI.)
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