GUWAHATI, Feb 10 � Colossal amounts are being spent on deporting foreigners, which once again proved that the process of detection and deportation of foreigners remained a farce even after scrapping of the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act.
As per information provided by the Minister in charge of Assam Accord Implementation, Dr Bhumidhar Barman, in the recently concluded session of the Assam Legislative Assembly, only 219 foreigners were deported in the last ten years , while more than Rs 33 crore was spent on maintaining the tribunals set up for the process of detection of foreigners alone.
The Minister said that during the period from 2001 to November last year, 15,835 persons were declared as foreigners by the Tribunals and only 219 of them could be physically deported from India. Only 97 persons declared as foreigners are kept in the detention camps set up by the Government and as many as 12,702 persons declared as foreigners are �missing�.
Barman informed the House that from 2001 to October last year, the Government had spent an amount of Rs 19.60 crore on the Tribunals set up under the provisions of the Foreigners� Act, while an amount of Rs 13.82 crore was spent on the IMDT Tribunals. The Government does not have the records of the amounts spent by the police force on detection and deportation of foreigners. At present, 36 Tribunals are functioning in the State and on an average an amount of Rs 1.50 lakh per month is being spent on each Tribunal.
Interestingly, the Assam Government still does not have information about the progress of construction of border roads and fencing by the Central Government agencies. Dr Barman said that the State Government sought information from the Central Government agencies involved in the process and the State PWD would complete the work entrusted to it by March this year.
