At least 575 Muslim fishermen in Gujarat’s Devbhoomi Dwarka district will not be able to vote as their names were deleted from the voter list following the demolition of ports in Gandhvi and Navadra villages of the district.
The state administration demolished the homes of Muslim fishermen for port expansion in Gandhvi village of Kalyanpur taluka (administrative division) in Devbhoomi Dwarka district, displacing the residents there last year.
These individuals had been voters in Dwarka assembly constituency number 301 for years and had also voted in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The votes of about 350 Muslim fishermen have been deleted from this year’s voter list and have not been transferred to any other location in Gujarat.
Similarly, the administration demolished the homes of Muslim fishermen in Navadra village of this taluka for port expansion, displacing the residents. These individuals were voters in Dwarka Assembly Constituency No. 249 and had voted there in many previous elections. The votes of approximately 225 Muslim fishermen in Navadra have been deleted from this year’s voter list and have not been transferred to any other location in the state.
According to these fishermen, they have been forcibly driven away by the administration. Multiple petitions for their reinstatement and resettlement are pending in the Gujarat High Court. The demolitions were carried out on the grounds of “illegal construction on government land” by the Muslim fishermen community.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.