The government was in the process of identifying people living along the international border in the Pithoragarh and Champawat districts of Uttarakhand who have dual citizenship of India and Nepal, an official said.
“We have found such cases in Pithoragarh’s Jhulaghat and some areas of Champawat district on the Indo-Nepal border. The district administrations concerned have been informed about this,” D.N. Bhombe, Deputy Inspector General, Almora region of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), said.
The SSB officer said that the personnel deployed in all the 54 border outposts of the force in Uttarakhand are trying to identify such people living in the Indian territory, who have the dual citizenship of India and Nepal.
He said the SSB was also taking the help of the district administrations concerned in this regard.
Pithoragarh Deputy District Magistrate Anil Kumar Shukla said there were two types of Nepalese living in India. He said the first category was of those women who got married and came to India, but neither gave up their Nepalese citizenship nor acquired the Indian citizenship.
The second category was of those people whose entire family came from Nepal and settled in India without taking Indian citizenship, he added.
“We have found many cases in which they fraudulently obtained Aadhaar cards and voter ID cards in India. We immediately cancelled their fake documents,” he said.
Mr. Bhombe said that apart from the smuggling of wild animals’ body parts and drugs, they were are also giving priority to preventing human trafficking, and have hence formed special teams to look into it.
He said the SSB personnel kept close contact with the villagers living in the border areas in order to gain information about the arrival of any outsider there.
