NEW DELHI, August 11: The Centre today admitted that the Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunal (IMDT) Act had been ineffective in expelling foreigners from Assam, and indicated that it would repeal the law if other political parties gave the go-ahead.

The Centre will try to work towards a ``wider consensus'' among political parties to bring a bill in Parliament seeking the repeal of the 1983 Act, Home Minister Indrajit Gupta told reporters here after a meeting with representatives of the Assam government and All Assam Students Union (AASU).

This the first time since 1990 that a tripartite meeting has been held to discuss the implementation of the Assam Accord, after being reviewed thoroughly.

Gupta said the signatories to the 1985 Accord agreed at the meeting that by and large its provisions had been implemented, barring those relating to the detection and deportation of illegal immigrants.

The meeting dealt largely with the issue of foreigners.

Gupta said that the representatives from Assam had impressed upon him that the people were getting impatient, and they needed assurance from the Centre that steps will be taken to implement the provisions of the Accord within a time frame.

He indicated that another meeting will take place within a month or two. Indrajit Gupta also agreed to a demand to visit areas on the Indo-Bangladesh border to assess the problem first hand. He described the meeting as ``quite an important breakthrough.''

Some months ago, the United Front government had indicated its desire to repeal the Illegal Migrants Act, which is applicable only in Assam. But the proposed repeal was opposed by several parties, particularly Congress.The meeting indicates that the Centre might make another bid to muster support for a repeal bill. Indrajit Gupta however made clear that a that a repeal would be considered only if there was a political consensus.

He also felt that the state itself could make better efforts at implementing the Illegal Migrants Act.

As many as 18 tribunals were supposed to operate in the state for detecting illegal migrants, but only two or three were actually in operation as judges were often not available.

Indrajit Gupta conceded that figures of illegal migrants detected and deported under the Act showed the results had been ``very, very meagre, very poor.''

He said the Assam representatives pointed out that under the Act the responsibility of proving that a person was an illegal migrant rested on the complainant.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.