GUWAHATI, June 28 - The Assam Police is expected to introduce nearly 30 hand-held biometric devices aimed at capturing photo and finger print of suspected illegal foreigners by the end of this year even as nearly 41,000 declared foreigners of post-1971 stream continue to evade arrest.
The instant finger print registration and identity verification system is being introduced for Border Police as a measure to put a check on the vanishing act of the illegal migrants and also to enable the border staff to match the identity of any suspected foreigner if he or she is caught at a later stage.
The process of creating an exclusive database is expected to start by the end of this year with the Mumbai-based firm Zebra Company being assigned to execute the project.
Director General of Assam Police Border Organization RM Singh, when asked, said that after capturing the picture and finger prints of suspected Bangladeshi nationals by the biometric device, the data would be sent and stored in a central server maintained at the head office of the Assam Police Border Organisation here.
Explaining the significance of the project, Singh said once the picture and finger prints are stored digitally, it would be easier to track down the illegal migrants evading arrest.
�Some software issues are being sorted out and once they are taken care of, the project will be ready for use,� sources pointed out, adding that almost every district will have at least one such facility at their disposal.
Source at the Assam Police headquarters here also said that once the central database is created, photographs and fingerprints of the suspected or declared foreigners could be shared with various law-enforcing agencies at the click of the mouse.
Till date, the law enforcers could apprehend only around 1,100 illegal Bangladeshis who had entered the State after 1971.
