Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi here on Saturday released a “white paper” on foreigners issue and claimed that infiltration was not as alarming as some quarters have been trying to project it. Mr Gogoi who is facing heat from several quarters over the foreigners issue told reporters, “Illegal immigration is not the only issue as some quarter tends to publicise.
There are number of issues like education, health and unemployment which we need to deal.”
Mr Tarun Gogoi, however, admitted the presence of immigrants in the state but asserted that it was not a threat to culture of Assam or Assamese.
Claiming that infiltration was on decline, Mr Gogoi referred the Election Commission of India as the most competent authority to identify foreigners in voters list.
“The Election Commission has also found very limited foreigners in the state even after repeated revision,” he said.
Bogged down by charges of BJP and AGP of vote bank politics, Mr Gogoi reiterated, “Economic development should be our focus. The foreigners’ issue will come on top if our cultural and national identity is threatened, which has not happened yet.”
He, however, claimed that his government will not tolerate a single foreigner in the state while listing out the various steps being taken for detection and deportation of illegal foreigners.
The white paper which he released on Saturday pointed out, “Since 1985, a total of 4,52,667 cases of suspected foreigners have been registered in the state, of which 1,84,275 cases have been disposed.
“Out these, 61,774 foreigners have been detected, of which 32,537 cannot be deported since they came between 1966-71 (people who entered during this period cannot be deported but do not enjoy voting rights by default).”
“Of the remaining 29,237 declared foreingers, only 2442 have been deported so far.”
Mr Gogoi admitted that the deportation record has been poor but cited the absence of any deportation or expatriation treaty with Bangladesh as a major impediment.
He regretted, “Bangladesh refuses to acknowledge those identified by our tribunals as foreigners or Bangladeshi.” (EOM)