From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Assam chief minister, Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday asserted that his government would publish a white paper by first week of October mentioning in detail the steps taken by his government to check the influx and the future plan for it even as a fresh wave of people’s agitation against the problem of illegal migrants threating to gather momentumin the State.
Making the announcement, Gogoi challenged the opposition BJP and the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to publish a white paper on what they had done to check the illegal migration from Bangladesh when they were in power in the state and the Centre.
Gogoi informed that the State has completed around 97 per cent fencing works along India-Bangladesh border while states like West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura have managed to complete 80 per cent, 81 percent and 58.70percent respectively.
“The AGP and the BJP raise hue and cry over the issue of illegal immigrants when an election is approaching and as soon as they are elected to power they forget the issue as if illegal migrants have disappeared overnight. Nobody exactly knows as to how many illegal immigrants are there in Assam. There are currently 2.37 lakh cases pending with 36 foreigners tribunals in the State,” Gogoi said.
The chief minister added the process for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would be streamlined by appointing a retired judge to head a special commission to deal with the issue. The chief justice of Gauhati High Court will be consulted for appointing the judge for the commission on the NRC.
Gogoi informed, “The state cabinet has already approved of taking up the work for updating the NRC and we are pressurizing the Centre to give its nod at the earliest.”
Gogoi said, “In order to do away with the shortage of judges we will request for appointing advocates, who are qualified to be judge in the tribunals. The selection of such judge can be done by the High Court. As per the new set of guidelines, all the cases before tribunals have to be disposed off within 60 days.”