Minister's reply makes it crystal clear

Which government acted tougher against foreigners?

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 11: Which parties and their governments did perform better on detection and expulsion of foreigners from Assam? Dispur laid facts on the floor of the Assembly on Monday, and facts speak for themselves.

Replying to a question from BJP MLA Tapan Kumar Gogoi, State Water Resource Minister Keshab Mahanta, on behalf of the Assam Accord Implementation Minister, informed the House that as many as 29,738 foreigners were expelled from the State till August 2017 since 1985 when the Assam Accord had been signed.

The written reply placed on the floor of the House by Mahanta shows that 1142 foreigners were expelled from the State in 1985, 1605 in 1986, 2302 in 1987, 3228 in 1988, 3049 in 1989 and 1994 in 1990. The AGP was in power during that period.      

However, the number of expulsion of foreigners from the State witnessed a drastic fall since 2001 when the Congress government led by Tarun Gogoi came at the helm of affairs. While only 551 foreigners were expelled from the State in 2001, 402 were expelled in 2002, 306 in 2003, 262 in 2004, 213 in 2005, 171 in 2006, 144 in 2007, 172 in 2008, 171 in 2009, 122 in 2010, 152 in 2011, 66 in 2012, 22 in 2013, 24 in 2014 and only 1 in 2015. 

Then the BJP came to power in the State. It expelled only 13 foreigners in 2016 and 25 up to August, 2017.

Mahta also informed the House that Dispur is going to provide fincial assistance to those injured in the Assam agitation from 1979 to 1985. He said that Rs 5 crore has been allocated for the purpose in the 2017-18 Budget, and rules and regulations for the scheme are being made. He said that the State Government had already paid Rs 5 lakh each to 801 martyrs’ kin in the State. He said there are other kin as well, but there are confusion regarding their relationship with martyrs. They, the minister said, will get the amount as and when the respective DCs clear their relationship with the martyrs. Mahanta further said that in 1986 the then state government paid Rs 30,000 to each of 852 martyrs’ families. From time to time, Dispur gave government jobs to 523 people belonging to martyrs families, he said. 

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