GUWAHATI, June 3 � The North East Students� Organization (NESO) and the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) have called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up the issue of signing a repatriation treaty with Bangladesh during his visit to the neighbouring country on June 6.
In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, the NESO and AASU said that deportation of a large number of Bangladeshi nationals staying illegally in India would not be possible without a repatriation treaty with the neighbouring country and the Prime Minister should take up the issue with his Bangladeshi counterpart during his visit to that country.
The memorandum pointed out that over the years, Indian dignitaries visiting Bangladesh played safe and did not take up the issue of illegal migration from that country. The Supreme Court had also directed the government to take up the issue with Bangladesh, but the people of Assam were still not aware whether the issue was taken up during the last visit by the External Affairs Minister to that country.
The NESO and AASU said that though one year had passed since the new government took charge in Delhi, the people of Assam were still waiting for effective steps for detection and deportation of foreigners. Though all political parties supported the Assam Accord, no step was taken to implement the major clauses of the Accord. Even the Supreme Court had criticised the Government of India for the slow progress in implementation of the Accord.
Meanwhile, talking to The Assam Tribune, AASU president Dipanka Nath said the student body had not changed its stand on the land swap deal with Bangladesh. He said the student body would never support handing over of Assam�s land to Bangladesh. He demanded that the land swap deal be amended to facilitate construction of the border fencing without handing over Assam�s land to the neighbouring country.
Nath further said that Modi should request the Government of Bangladesh to allow India to bring in the floating border outposts through that country. He also said that as the fencing along the international border had to be constructed 150 yards within Indian territory, many Indian villages are now located outside the fencing. This issue should also be taken up with the Government of Bangladesh so that those villages could be brought inside the fencing, he said.
