IAS Tina Dabi orders eviction drive of settlement of Pakistani Hindu refugees, ignites protests 

Following the orders of IAS Tina Dabi, the administration has bulldozed temporary settlements of relocated Pakistani Hindu migrants in Amarsagar gram panchayat. Over 150 men, women, and children are protesting against the action outside the district Collectorate in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

Videos of the inhuman lathi charge on women and children protestors, leading to hospitalisations, have taken the internet by storm. These Hindu refugees await their Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act intended to provide citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who had migrated to India prior to December 31, 2014.

IAS Tina Dabi has defended the bulldozing action by the administration citing the complaint from the sarpanch of Amarsagar and the neighbourhood’s people. The land belongs to the state government’s urban improvement trust (UIT) and was illegally occupied by Hindu migrants, added Tina. 

Talking to the media, Dabi also said that the migrants were served notices to vacate the land, but they refused to relocate. The state government has no policy of rehabilitating migrants who have not been granted citizenship of India, she said. 

The protestors have reiterated that the protest will not budge until the they were relocated somewhere else. 

Earlier this month, around 200 structures belonging to Hindu Pakistani immigrants were razed by bulldozers of the Jodhpur Development Authority in another anti-encroachment drive.