NEW DELHI, Dec 15 ? Months after the goof-up on figures of the illegal migrants in the State, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has claimed that 26,669 foreigners are staying illegally in Assam. In a Rajya Sabha reply, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Sriprakash Jaiswal said that according to available information 46,587 foreigners were staying illegally in India as on December 31,last year.
According to the figures submitted by the Minister, Assam is home to highest number of foreigners staying illegally in the country and even more than that of West Bengal where 14,131 such foreigners were staying illegally.
In his earlier reply in the last Session, also in the Rajya Sabha, that was subsequently withdrawn, Sri Jaiswal had estimated that Assam was home to 1.20 crore illegal migrants and West Bengal 57 lakh. In the Rajya Sabha, a discussion on the internal security focused primarily on the illegal immigration from Bangladesh.
Sanjay Nirupam (Shiv Sena) said that the Centre needed to constitute special task forces to detect and deport illegal migrants from the country. Members also took exception to Sri Patil?s statement that illegal migrants came because of economic reasons. Members said that despite knowing that leaders of several militant outfit including Paresh Baruah of ULFA were operating out of Bangladesh, India was helpless to act.
Meanwhile, clarifying Government?s stand on the controversial IMDT Act, Sri Patil told Rajya Sabha that the Centre decided to retain the Act for several reasons. The IMDT Act ensures there should be no harassment of the genuine Indian citizens as the burden of proof that a person was illegal migrant was on the prosecution.
The Act contains legal measures for detecting foreigners through judicial procedures without harassing the genuine Indian citizens. The retention of the Act ensures that Government is sensitive to the genuine needs and demands of the sections of the society.
The Foreigner?s Act, Sri Patil claimed that was not fool proof and the number of persons deported are negligible. But he added that stringent measures are needed to tackle the problem of illegal migration of Bangladeshi at the border. Towards this end, Government has already taken up fencing of the India-Bangladesh border and a pilot project for multi-purpose National identity card Scheme, which would facilitate identification and deportation of illegal migrants was already underway.
Sri Patil further added that a number of organisations representing the minority communities from Assam, which appeared before the Department related Standing Committee for Home Affairs had expressed grave concerns if the IMDT Act was repealed.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home Affairs, S.Reghupathy said that it was decided to construct the border fencing along Indo-Bangladesh border within 150 yards from the international border wherever unavoidable due to habitation and terrain factors, excluding enclaves and areas under adverse possession.
Meanwhile, the Home Minister confirmed that Delhi High Court in September in response to a Writ Petition, had directed the Government of Delhi to undertake the survey to detect illegal Bangladeshi migrants residing in Delhi and to deport them immediately.
Accordingly Delhi Police has constituted 16 additional task force teams to speed up the work of detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants. The Government has also directed Commissioner of Food and Civil Supplies in the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi to extend cooperation to the task force teams by deputing supply inspectors to participate in these teams.
On the report of ISI operating out of Bangladesh, the Minister said that Pakistani intelligence agency has been using Bangladesh for providing material and logistic support to some of the North Eastern insurgent outfits. However, there are no reports to indicate ISI involvement in providing assistance to the North-East insurgents based in Myanmar.