After Gujarat, Assam ready with action plan to catch 'illegal migrants'; Deb Barma sounds alarm

Guwahati: After Gujarat's crackdown against "illegal migrants," Assam, another state with BJP in power, is set to launch a special drive to catch similar migrants and those who got Aadhar cards without applying for the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said his government is ready with an action plan to identify the "illegal migrants" and detain them during a drive to be launched soon. "We will launch the drive very soon," he said.

Sarma's announcement came amid the campaigns for the panchayat elections in Assam, scheduled on May 2 and 7. The issue of "illegal migrants," mainly from neighbouring Bangladesh, takes centre stage in every elections due to strong anti-foreigner sentiments among the majority indigenous Assamese voters.

Gujarat on Saturday launched a crackdown and detained more than 1,000 "illegal migrants," mainly from Ahmedabad and Surat. The BJP government in the state said most of them are suspected to be illegal migrants from Bangladesh and were illegally engaged in various factories and other jobs.

Aadhar without NRC

The Assam CM further said action will be taken against those who got Aadhar cards without applying for the NRC, an exercise that sought to detect the post-1971 migrants from Bangladesh. "There are reports that many got the Aadhar cards without applying for the NRC," he said.

The NRC exercise with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off for citizenship was carried out only in Assam with an aim to detect "illegal migrants." More than 19.06 lakh people were dropped from the final draft list of the NRC, which was released in July 2018. The NRC, however, has remained in the backburner, mainly due to several petitions pending in the Supreme Court.

Deb Barma warning

Sarma's announcement came on a day Pradyot Deb Barma, the founder of Tipra Motha, a regional ally of the ruling BJP in Tripura, said Assam, Tripura and parts of Meghalaya have become a transit route for illegal migrants from Bangladesh to enter the Northeast and rest of India.

"Illegal migrants are entering everyday. For every five people apprehended, 1,000 people get away because of the terrain and the porous border. Tripura is going through a demographic change once again," Deb Barma said.