No rest till Assam freed of foreigners, vows Patowary

No abnormal increase in Muslim population of Assam in 1951-71 period, per capita income of Bangladesh more than India’s: Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 3: The Assam government has made it clear that it will not rest till the State is completely freed of illegal foreigners, and all illegal foreigners detected in the State are deported to their countries of origin. This was stated by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary in the Assembly on Friday.

Patowary said it, however, depends on the court when the State will be completely freed of illegal tiols. “Identification of illegal foreigners is done by the Foreigners Tribul and not by the government,” he pointed out while replying to a pending resolution moved by Congress MLA Abdul Khalek in the earlier Assembly session which demanded that the foreigners’ issue be solved in time-bound manner and all pending ‘D’ voter’ cases be disposed of by 2020.

Patowary said, “Illegal immigration into Assam started increasing since 1947 when India became independent. In 1951, population of Assam was 80 lakh, which increased to 108 lakh in 1961. Given that huge and untural increase in the State’s population in just one decade, the ‘Prevention of Infiltration into India of Pakistani tiols Act’ was ected to deport illegal foreigners, and many of them were actually deported at that time,” adding, “It was from 1964 that the Foreigners Tribul Act came up.”

“In between 1948 and 1971, many people came to Assam from the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and it is a historical fact,” said the minister.

According to Patowary, “Till October 2016, a total of 4,44,189 cases related to illegal foreigners were sent to Foreigners Tribuls and of the total cases sent, 2,42,261 cases were disposed off. Of those 2,42,261 cases, 78,916 foreigners were declared illegal foreigners by the Tribuls.”

Earlier on this issue, Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed tried to convince the House by citing some data that Muslim population in Assam hadn’t increased in the period 1951-71. This led to chaotic situation in the House, with Ahmed even referring to per capita income of Bangladesh, contending that it is more than India’s per capita income. But ruling party MLAs shut down Ahmed from making any reference to Bangladesh.

AGP MLA Phanibhusan Chowdhury, BJP MLAs Pijush Hazarika and Tapan Kumar Gogoi supported by other MLAs in the House objected to Ali’s Bangladesh statement.