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Friday, December 25, 1998

SC seeks status report on Bangla immigrants

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA  
NEW DELHI, DEC 24: The Supreme Court has asked the Centre and West Bengal government to file ``status report'' on the presence of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the country and in that state.

A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice A S Anand, Justices V N Khare and M B Shah in a recent order directed the Union Government and West Bengal to file the reports within six weeks.

The direction was issued by the apex court on a public interest litigation (PIL), filed by All India Lawyers Forum for Civil Liberties (AILFCL) seeking direction to the Centre and West Bengal Government to make arrangement for repatriation of over estimated one crore ``illegal'' Bangladeshi migrants.The petitioner said the government should take help of National Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International and the UN in identifying the infiltrators and their repatriation ``with honour'' to their country.

The petition filed through AILFCL president O P Saxena and its counsel Chinnasamy said a sizable chunk of manual jobswere being cornered by Bangladeshi nationals.

``Instances are not far of their having already occupied a considerable portion of the jobs, both manual and white collar in the country, depriving bonafide citizens of legitimate scope of employment,'' AILFCL contended.The petition further said the presence of such a huge population of unlawful immigrants from Bangladesh has put a severe strain on already over-populated country's meagre and scanty resources.

``Bangladeshi infiltrators have threatened to change the demographic picture of the country by their overwhelming presence in certain regions and there are reports of their even making it to local bodies like panchayats and municipal committees,'' it said.

This was highly ``detrimental'' to national security and called for immediate action, the plea said adding they were causing law and order problem in many areas.

It said the infiltrators had got ration cards issued to them and their names enlisted in electoral rolls. ``This is a big threat to thevery foundation of the country's democracy,'' it said.

The petition said under an organised racket a large number of Bangladeshi people who, though living in their country, obtained ration cards here and even purchased land which helped them in easy migration to India.

Despite regular reports in newspapers about infiltration of Bangladeshi citizens into the country, the authorities had not been able to take effective steps to curb their inflow, the plea said.

Various organisations of north-eastern states have cited infiltration of Bangladeshis as one of the main cause for insurgency in the region, the petition, referring to various newspaper reports, said.

Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.


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