Guwahati: In what has raised many eyebrows, a 70-year-old woman who migrated to Assam from Uttar Pradesh with her husband in 1945 died from heartbreak over their children — born and brought up in Assam — being declared ‘doubtful citizens of India’. The 70-year-old’s — Chhotki Devi Prajapati — son Dinesh Prajapati and daughter-in-law Tara Devi are languishing at a detention camp in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district.
Informing that Chhotki Devi had migrated to Assam with her husband Parshuram Prajapati, in 1945 from Balia district of Uttar Pradesh, office bearers of All Assam Bhojpuri Students Union said that the family has been surviving on small farmland and a house given by the government. Parshuram who passed away few years back had two sons, Dinesh and Rajesh, and three daughters, all of them born and married in Assam. Chhotki Devi, who was looking after the five children of Dinesh, presently in a detention camp, fell sick after Dinesh and her daughter-in-law were declared as ‘doubtful citizens’ and asked to face trial in front the foreigners tribunal.
Dinesh and his wife, struggling to earn their livelihood, could not appear before the tribunal and about three months back, police had arrested them and sent to the detention camp. “Since then Chhotki Devi was running from pillar to post to get her son released. Nobody could help her and subsequently she fell sick and died on Friday,” said the residents of the area. The residents said that after the death of the grandmother, villagers have been looking after the livelihood of the five children of Dinesh who, along with his wife, has been categorised as a D-voter (Doubtful voter).
