GUWAHATI, Feb 3 - It is not possible to identify and deport illegal migrants within a stipulated time-frame, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patwary said today, insisting that the government will not sit idle till the State is 100 per cent foreigner-free.
Patwary was stating the government�s response to a pending private members� resolution brought by Congress MLA Abdul Khaleque seeking resolution of the long-pending �D-voters� issue within 2020 in the Assembly.
�It is not possible to identify and deport illegal migrants within a stipulated time-frame, and if the process is hurried, there are chances of genuine Indian citizens getting harassed. The government wants that the exercise should proceed within the legal framework,� Patwary said.
Admitting that there is no estimate of the number of illegal migrants currently staying in Assam, the minister, however, said it was beyond doubt that besides those already identified, there are many more who are yet to be detected an deported.
The issue, he said, was sensitive and as such the police department has been asked to be cautious while dealing with the cases.
Stating that 1,14,401 �D-voter� cases were pending with various Foreigners� Tribunals, Patwary said the government believes that after the final verdicts, the cases will be resolved once and for all. The issue of foreigners and �D-voters� fall under the jurisdiction of the Central Government and Election Commission, and though the State Government cannot interfere directly, it is lending necessary cooperation, he said.
According to figures provided by Patwary, till October, 2016, the Assam Police has launched investigations into 6,21,688 cases related to illegal migrants, of which 6,14,202 have been completed and 4,44,189 of them have been forwarded to courts. The number detected foreigners till date is 78,916.
Earlier, Congress members Wazed Ali Choudhury and Sherman Ali Ahmed claimed that many Indian citizens from the minority community were facing harassment in the name of detection of foreigners.
