NEW DELHI, Feb 18— The process of detecting illegal migrants has started all over the country even as the Centre has initiated several steps to check the influx of Bangladeshi nationals into India. While the population of the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh is estimated to be in millions, those overstaying in the country are around 24,443, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Haren Pathak said today. The minister stated this in the Lok Sabha this morning in response to a question on illegal migrants overstaying in India. There are reports of large scale illegal influx of Bangladeshi nationals who manage to infiltrate into the country in spite of checks and controls at the international border due to long, open and porous nature of the border. A large number of Bangladeshi as well as Pakistan nationals are reported to be overstaying in the country, he added.
The Minister then added that the problem of illegal influx is mainly from Bangladesh. To curb illegal influx the Central Government has taken several measures, he claimed. The Minister, however, said the powers to detect and deport foreigners are vested with the State Governments under Section 3(2)(C) of the Foreigners Act, 1946. Besides administrative instructions are also issued to the States from time to time to launch special drives to detect the Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals staying illegally in the country for their immediate deportation, he asserted.
Earlier, in response to a question about the steps taken by the Centre to check the illegal migrants from crossing over and measures taken to detect and deport them, the Minister said two major steps were taken. The Director General’s conference and Chief Minister’s meeting have taken up this issue and all the States have agreed to take up detection and deportation vigorously and firmly, he added. The Lok Sabha, meanwhile, would discuss the issue in an half-an-hour discussion, the speaker ruled.
Meanwhile, in reply to a separate question, Minister of State for Home, I D Swami said that some North eastern States have asked for deployment of more security forces to guard the border to check infiltration. The Central Government has also approved Rs 1,334 crore for construction of additional roads, fencing along the Indo-Bangladesh border under Phase-II. This involves fencing of 2429.5 kms and road network of 797 km. These works are to be completed by December 2007.
With the completion of this work the entire area on Indo-Bangladesh border where fencing is feasible, would be fenced, the Minister contended. Sri Swami claimed that the Phase-I of the project in pursuance of Assam Accord, including fencing and border roads in States of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and West Bengal have been almost completed.
In Assam, the Minister said a total of 223.81 km of fencing have been sanctioned of which 149.29 km have been completed, at an estimated cost of Rs 19.28 crore. In the Phase -II of the project in Assam 71.50 km has been sanctioned though no physical work on it has started so far. The Minister further said that the Central Government has decided to procure 14 floating border outpost for deployment in riverine areas on Indo-Bangla border and in Gujarat. The first set of three BoPs have since been commissioned. Sri Swami referring to the recent Satgachi border incident, said the Government has taken up the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh with the Government, which has been requested to follow the agreed modalities for taking back illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, the MHA has asked all the State Governments to send detail informations about Madrassas. The MHA is developing a data base on Madrassas and is seeking informations like its numbers, courses taugh, authorities regulating their functioning, grants received by them among others.