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Hoshiarpur: Following the kidnapping and gruesome murder of a five-year-old boy allegedly by a migrant worker in Hoshiarpur on September 9, sarpanches of around 20 villages of Hoshiarpur block-2 announced on Saturday that they would not issue verification of residence (residence certificate) to the migrants in their villages. No migrant “without papers” (some official identity or residence document issued in Punjab) would be allowed to reside in the village. Anger has been brewing in Hoshiarpur city and surrounding villages against the migrants after details of the murder and pictures of the victim emerged, whose body was recovered on the morning of September 10.Video clips of the wailing parents and a sister of the victim have already been going viral, fuelling the anger. The child was sodomised and then strangulated. His post mortem report mentioned injuries on his body. Accused Nanke Yadav was arrested on the same night.These sarpanches held a meeting at Bajwara village on Saturday and then issued a joint statement. They said that either the panchayats of the villages they were representing had already passed these resolutions or would pass them on Sunday. In their joint statement, they said that they took the decision after the child’s murder in Hoshiarpur and incidents at other places. They also urged the Hoshiarpur deputy commissioner for cooperation.“A discussion on the issue was already on in our village panchayat, and we intended to pass such a resolution. In our village, migrant families have been squatting on panchayat land, and we intend to vacate the land. There have been several instances of involvement of migrants in crimes, and the horrible crime of Hoshiarpur shook us to the core. From now on, we will not issue residence certificates to the migrants, and anybody without an official document issued by the Punjab govt would not be allowed to reside in the village,” said Bajwara sarpanch Rajesh Kumar ‘Bobby’ Mahey, who was the first to take the lead. “Our panchayat passed the resolution on September 10, and most of the panchayats would pass similar resolutions,” he said.Village Qila Baroon Sarpanch Kuldeep Kumar said that most of the panchayats passed the resolution on Thursday and Friday, and on Saturday, they held the meeting of the sarpanches. “There was already concern about the increasing population of migrants in Punjab and several instances of their involvement in crimes. There is a common refrain that what happened in Hoshiarpur can happen to others also. When several of the migrants already have made their Aadhar cards in Punjab and some have also enrolled themselves as voters, we have put the brakes on issuing new residence certificates,” he added.After the cremation of the child, a protest march was taken out in Hoshiarpur city on Sept 11.Earlier on Sept 6, the Phagwara-Chandigarh National Highway was blocked for over two hours at Rail Majra, District Nawanshahr, by residents of the village and other nearby villages to seek action against around half a dozen migrant youths from the village of Prem Nagar for using offensive language against Punjabis and Sikhs. Later, police registered a case against six persons, including Prem Nagar Sarpanch Mohan Gupta and his son Sujit Kumar.
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