NEW DELHI, April 9 — The hue and cry over presence of a huge migrant population in the border areas, notwithstanding, the Union Government so far has not made any effort to identify the illegal migrants, even as Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed that Assam Government has submitted an eight-point formula for checking influx of foreigners from across the border.
Contrary to its claims about presence of 10 million illegal migrants in the country, the Central Government has no official data to prove its point. “The question on nationality was not canvassed at the Census 2001 and therefore, it is not possible to identify illegal migrants,” Minister of State for Home Affairs, Harin Pathak said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
The Minister reply was in response to a question about whether the Government undertook any operation to identify nationalities of residents living in border States like Assam, West Bengal, and Bihar, which have a large number of illegal immigrants during the 2001 Census survey. The figure on the number of illegal migrants has always been sticky issue for the Government to handle, as it is no position to collect data on the illegal influx through porous Indo-Bangla border. The figures quoted in the Report of the Group of Minister on Internal Security were stated to be based on intelligence report and tentative assessment.
The MHA maintains that it is difficult to gather such data partly because of the reason that infiltration is a continuous process. Besides the illegal migrants often shifts from one place to another. Some assessment is also made on the decadal growth of a State like Nagaland, which recorded a 67 per cent increase in its population.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home Affairs, ID Swami in a separate reply to a question tabled by Karnendu Bhattacharjee said Central Government has received proposal from Assam Government to check illegal infiltration from Indo-Bangladesh border. The proposals included reduction of gaps between border outpost for Border Security Force (BSF), riverine patrolling, border fencing and preparation of National Register of Citizens, among other measures.
The Minister then went on to mention that the Centre has taken action to check illegal infiltration by strengthening BSF and equipping them with sophisticated weapons, construction of border fencing and roads. The State Government has also been directed to enforce the provisions of IMDT Act.
Meanwhile tension along the Indo-Bangla border has taken a high toll on both the BSF and the civilians with a highest number of 128 civilians and 6 BSF personnel being killed last year. The BSF, however, lost a record number of 20 personnel in 2001. This year already six civilians and one BSF personnel have been killed.
Meanwhile, the MHA has also endorsed the views of the Director General BSF that infiltration would be largely contained after fencing along the Indo-Bangla border is completed.