Dimapur, July 31 (MExN): The move against illegal migrants in Mokokchung has been smooth sailing this far. However, trouble seems to be brewing up with the Chief Minister of Assam today asserting that three thousand migrant settlers in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh who were deported recently were genuine Indian citizens.
Besides Nagaland, earlier this month, the Arunachal Pradesh government has intensified its drive against illegal migrants staying in the state in violation of inner line permit rules.
Papumpare district administration in Arunachal Pradesh said that it had conducted a drive on July 10 and 11 against people living in the state without an Inner Line Permit (ILP).
However, faced with the exodus of illegal migrants from the two states especially Nagaland, and also face with resentment from within the local Assamse populace, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi strongly asserted that those deported were Indian citizens.
“I want to make it very clear that the government have verified their cases and found they are all Indian citizens”, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, reported a news agency. Gogi claimed that only 38 people among them were found to have “doubtful origins”, and sought to warn the two states.
“The government will not allow Assam to be a dumping ground and to us Bangladeshi or foreigner coming from any other country is one who came to Assam after March 25, 1971. Anyone who has come after this date will be detected and deported”.
Over 200 families of doubtful nationality have entered Kashipara under Kokrajhar police station in the past few days and set up temporary shelters, a national daily reported on July 21. The Bodoland Territorial Council chief Hagrama Mohilary said, “No foreigner will be allowed to settle in the BTC area at any cost and under any circumstance”. The All Assam Students’ Union has declared that all the Bangladeshis who came to the State after 1971 would have to leave the State.
“The government will protect every genuine Indian citizen and nobody will be allowed to take law in their hands and drive out any people....
It is also not proper on the part of AASU and other organisations to dub all those expelled Indian citizens from Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh as foreigners only because they belong to religious minority and labour community”, said Gogoi, as reported by the news agency.
However, the Ao Students’ Conference (AKM) which is spearheading the anti-migrant drive is unrelenting on its ‘Survival 2007’, the code name under which the drive is being carried out.
In a press statement, the AKM warned that certain locals sympathizing for harboring the illegal migrants in different wards in the town and said that the students body would deal seriously with those sympathizers.
The AKM sought the co-operation of the respective Ward Authorities to evict the illegal migrants, as resolved in their joint meeting on July 20., and further said that the AKM is be expecting the Action Taken Report by all the respective Ward Authorities on this matter at the earliest time possible.
The AKM also said that it is going to conduct surprise checking in the town.
“Survival 2007 campaign undertaken by the AKM is meticulously planned and that it is being executed phase by phase,” the AKM said.
The AKM also extended support to the All Assam Students Union (AASU) in their drive against illegal migrants.
“There is indeed a sinister ploy to carve out a ‘Greater Bangladesh’ comprising of the entire north-east India by certain external and fundamentalist forces, as rightly contained by AASU. The Nagas cannot and shall not tolerate a Bangladeshi nation within the Naga nation” the AKM declared.
The illegal migrant issue has been a burning issue in almost all the north eastern states, especially Assam and Nagaland.
Assam Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Ajay Singh has once said that about 6000 illegal Bangladeshis are entering Assam daily. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi rejected the Governor’s claim.
In Nagaland, the issue of the influx of illegal Bangladeshi entering the state as been raised from time to time, but each time the anti migrant issue has been bogged down in Nagaland due to reactions from Assam said. However, the latest anti migrant issue, has been systematically taken by the AKM, however, with the reported statement by the Assam Chief Minister on the migrant drive…only time can tell.
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