Chief minister Mamata Banerjee stressed on issuing pattas — deeds of long-term settlement rights — to all residents of refugee colonies across Bengal during a cabinet meeting at Nabanna on Thursday.

“Our government has given pattas to 99 per cent of the residents of refugee colonies in the state. Only 1 per cent of the residents could not be given pattas only because of family feuds. If they can resolve their family problems, we will issue pattas to them also,” said Aroop Biswas, the state power minister, after the cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The focus on the refugee colonies assumes significance in the backdrop of the Centre’s initiatives to frame rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

Sources said that the ruling party already criticised the Union minister of state for home affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra’s comments where he said that rules of CAA would be framed by March this year, terming it as another BJP attempt to mislead the Matua community.

“The chief minister is trying to send a message to those who were forced to come over to Bengal by allotting them land and a permanent address to counter the CAA effect. There is a reason for Trinamul to be worried as the BJP had wrested two Lok Sabha seats of Bongaon and Ranaghat riding on the CAA sentiment in 2019,” said a source.

Sources said that the state government had completed distributing pattas to the residents of 94 refugee colonies on state government land. Now, fresh initiatives will be taken to find out if there was anybody left in the colonies set up on state government land to get the pattas.

“If anybody did not get it, officials would find why. If the problem is resolved, the person will be issued a patta immediately. The chief minister wants all the residents to get pattas at the earliest,” said a senior official.

There are some problems with colonies set up on the central government land. Although the state issued possession certificates in favour of residents of the refugee colonies set up on central government land, central agencies like the railways opposed the move.

“The railways had opposed the move saying the state cannot issue settlement rights on plots possessed by the central agency... After the challenge, the initiative of giving pattas to owners of homes on central government land had been hit. It appears that the officials will again issue pattas on the central government land,” said a source.

Some officials said while it was yet to be clear whether the state could issue pattas on central government land, the initiative had worked for the ruling party in Bengal as it won several Assembly seats in the Matua-dominated areas of North 24-Paranas and Nadia in the 2021 Bengal polls.

“Now, it appears that the chief minister is depending on her tried and tested weapon (of pattas) to counter the BJP’s CAA to woo Matuas ahead of the Lok Sabha elections this year,” said a bureaucrat.