Researchers from Lucknow get mistaken for 'NRC surveyors' in Bihar; handed over to police

A team of researchers from Lucknow mistaken as surveyors for NRC was caught by residents of a village in Bihar's Darbhanga and handed over to the police, a senior official said on Sunday.

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Superintendent of Police, Darbhanga, Babu Ram said the incident took place on Friday when the team, comprising 12 people, including four women, visited a village under Jamalpur police station area. The team was from a Lucknow-based research organization, which was engaged by a US-based PhD scholar. However, as they began visiting households and collecting information, the word spread that “NRC surveyors” had arrived following which villagers grew furious and held them hostage for some time before dragging them to the police station.

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The situation was defused at the police station where officials verified the identities of the researchers and explained the fact to the villagers, who then went back satisfied, the SP said. He, however, added that similar incidents have taken place in the district in recent past and an awareness campaign has been launched as part of which residents are being told to “inform the police or local administrative officials” if any surveyors in their area aroused suspicion “instead of illegally detaining them”.

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With the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) spreading in different parts of Bihar, people engaged in conducting surveys for private research and marketing companies are being mistakenly targeted. While Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has already said that he will discuss if NRC should be implemented in the state, the chaos within the JDU seems to have increased the uncertainty among the people. 

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