Guwahati: Assam government has started the process to detect the 1 lakh 68 thousand Bangladeshi declared as illegal foreigners by tribunals. Almost 90 percent of these declared foreigners are missing as of now. These intruders were declared as illegal foreigners residing in Assam by foreigners tribunals after many hearings. But most of them went missing after the tribunal’s verdict. Some of them have appealed in the high court and supreme court. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on September 9 said that after the new SoP on Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act, 1950, the state government will expedite the deportation process. CM Sarma said, “ we have pushbacked 30,126 foreigners so far. But after adoption of the new SoP the numbers will increase significantly.”
The CM also said that his government will be able to evacuate those 1 lakh 68 thousand foreigners declared by foreigners tribunals except those who have pending cases in courts and stay order. These cases will not be sent to FT, rather the suspected citizen has to prove his citizenship before the District Commissioner (DC) within 10 days. If he/she fails to do so, evacuation orders will be passed by the DC.
It should be mentioned that when the Supreme Court abolished the controversial IMDT (The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act in 2005 in the Sarbananda Sonowal vs union of India case, the Congress government introduced the Foreigners Tribunals to detect illegal infiltrators in Assam which made the process very complicated. Now the Supreme Court in its recent verdict said that the state government can use Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act, 1950 to deport detected foreigners from the state. CM Sarma said now this is the law of the land as it was passed by a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court and the state government will act according to it. The supreme court further opined that having the name in NRC doesn’t mean that the person is Indian. It could be one of the claims of the person in favour of his/her citizenship.
CM Sarma further clarified that the Bengali Hindu population in Assam are confident as most of them had come to Assam prior to 1971. Only 12 Bengali Hindu persons have applied for Indian citizenship under CAA in Assam. So the act doesn’t have any relevance in the state.
