About 45 lakh people across Bengal have applied for non-foodgrain ration cards in less than three weeks, reflecting the widespread panic about a prospective NRC update in the state and the consequent labelling of sections of residents as non-citizens.

BJP leaders including Union home minister Amit Shah have repeatedly asserted that an Assam-like National Register of Citizens exercise would be carried out in Bengal and elsewhere in the country.

About 1 crore people in Bengal whose economic status precludes them from the ordinary ration card scheme are eligible to obtain the non-foodgrain card, which brings no welfare benefits but can be used as an identity document.

“The rush shows the NRC panic is real, especially since it should be clear these cards cannot establish that the holder has been in India since before March 24, 1971, the cut-off date used in Assam,” a bureaucrat said.

“Besides, the list of documents for inclusion in Assam’s updated NRC did not include ration cards. But people here seem to be trying to collect as many identity cards as possible just out of fear.”

A food department official said: “The applicants are from well-to-do families. Usually, these families have enough documents to claim inclusion in any updated NRC. When these families apply for a non-foodgrain card, it’s clear that people are panicking.”

This NRC scare is believed to have helped Trinamul pull off a somewhat unexpected 3-0 win over the BJP in the Bengal Assembly by-elections, whose results were declared on Thursday.

It’s this panic that had prompted chief minister Mamata Banerjee to ask the food and supplies department to undertake, as a confidence-building measure, a programme for issuing non-foodgrain cards and rectifying mistakes in the existing ration cards.

After conducting awareness programmes on the availability of non-foodgrain cards, the department started accepting applications on November 9.

Seeing the rush, it has extended the deadline from November 30 to December 15. The applications are being accepted at block, municipal and borough offices.

The NRC has become a key issue in the battle for Bengal between Trinamul and the BJP. Mamata has pledged to prevent any such exercise in the state and promised that not a single person would be driven out of Bengal.

On Thursday, Trinamul produced a surprise result by winning Kaliaganj, a North Dinajpur constituency along the Bangladesh border, and improving on its performance in Karimpur, another border seat, in Nadia.

Sources said all the 8 crore beneficiaries of the cheap foodgrain scheme in Bengal possess digitised ration cards. The remaining 1.1 crore people have no ration cards.

“These people didn’t bother about ration cards before; now suddenly they are queuing up because of the NRC scare,” another official said.

The exclusion of 19 lakh people from Assam’s updated NRC, published on August 31, started the panic in Bengal, particularly in the border districts. The BJP leaders’ comments fanned the fear.

Despite Mamata’s reassurances, the state has witnessed 20-odd deaths from suicide or cardiac arrest that have been attributed to the NRC scare.

An official said he had never before seen such a craze to acquire a document that would presumably not bring any benefits. “If people from well-off families stand in long queues to apply for a mere identity card, it’s clear the situation is not normal,” he said.

Food department officials said 1.25 crore people had applied for “minor corrections” to their existing ration cards and that this too reflected the NRC scare.

“We have been receiving applications to correct minor mistakes, such as the spellings of names, over the past few months. This indicates that people are afraid and want to explore all possible ways of establishing their identity,” a bureaucrat said.