December deadline for nation's biggest detention centre

Assam government has set December as the deadline to complete the construction of the country's biggest detention centre for convicted foreigners, work on which is underway in the Goalpara district.

The detention centre a capacity to detain 3,000 foreigners is being funded by the Centre. The detention centre will have a school, a hospital, recreation area and rooms for security personnel, for which Rs. 46.5 crores has been sanctioned by the Centre. It is being constructed at Matia, about 125-km west of Guwahati.

Although it is being speculated that the detention is meant for those to be identified as foreigners by foreigner tribunals, officials clarified that it was meant for 1,135 foreigners now lodged in six detention camps inside jails in Assam. "Those, who were declared foreigners will be shifted to the new detention camp exclusively meant for foreigners. We had to lodge them inside jail walls since we did not have a detention camp exclusively for foreigners," he said.

It was also believed that the detention centre is meant for those, who were left out of the final NRC and would subsequently be declared foreigners by foreigner tribunals. But the official said, "It is not yet clear what would be the government's policy for them. So it is not correct to link the detention centre with the NRC left-outs. Let's wait and see."

Meanwhile, the Assam government has decided to submit detail proposal to the Centre seeking financial assistance for construction of 10 more new detention centres to lodge foreigners till their deportation.