More than half FT cases in 9 Muslim-majority districts

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, Aug 27: Call it a coincidence, or maybe there is a deliberate pattern. More than half of the pending Foreigner Tribul cases are in the nine Muslim-domited districts in the State, according to government records.

The data on Population by Religious Communities of Census 2011 released two days back have shown that the number of Muslim-domited districts in the State rose from six to nine, with Bongaigaon, Darrang and Morigaon being the new entrants.

According to the 2001 Census, Goalpara, Dhubri, Karimganj, Hailakandi, Barpeta and gaon were the six districts where the Muslim population exceeded 50 per cent of the total.

Significantly, these nine Muslim-domited districts account for more than half of the cases pending in Foreigners Tribuls.

The total number of pending cases in the FTs is nearly 2.25 lakh, of which over 1.37 lakh are in these nine districts alone.

Barpeta has the highest number of pending FT cases - 31,482, followed by Darrang (25,449) and Dhubri (24,996).

According to the 2011 Census, the highest growth rate of Muslim population was recorded in Barpeta district, where it has grown at a fast pace recording a population of 70.73 per cent as against the 2001 population of 59 per cent. The Muslim population there has grown by 11.73 per cent. The Hindu population in the district has declined to 29.10 per cent.

Dhubri district has recorded the highest Muslim population of 79.67 per cent, while the Hindu population has shrunk to 19.92 per cent.

The number of pending FT cases in the other Muslim-domited districts are- gaon: 19,713, Goalpara: 14,630, Bongaigaon: 9,324, Morigaon: 8,685, Karimganj: 3,561 and Hailakandi: 89.

"The districts where we suspected that there could be maximum number of illegal migrants have incidentally recorded the highest growth in Muslim population. The districts where there are indigenous Muslims have not shown such abnormal growth in Muslim population," says Abhijeet Sharma, president of Assam Public Works.

He feels the birth control schemes have failed utterly in these minority-domited districts, especially the char areas.

"There were organizations who had predicted that Assam might get a Bangladeshi chief minister in the next ten years. What have they to say now after the census data? Will they be able to prevent such a thing?" Sharma questioned.

According to the 2011 Census data, Muslim population in Assam has increased to 34.22 per cent, a jump of over four per cent, while the Hindu population has been pegged at 61.46 per cent.

The total Hindu population in the State is 1,91,80,759 (61.46 per cent) and the Muslim population is 1,6,79,345 (34.22 per cent). In the 2001 census the Muslim population was 30.9 per cent.