Guwahati: Hailing Centre’s decision to regularize entry and stay of people from minority communities in Pakistan and Bangladesh, who have been forced to flee to India due to persecution, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday said the first move in this respect was made during the previous Congress-led UPA government.
“It is a not a new decision. We have been all along asking for allowing these persecuted people stay on humanitarian grounds,” Gogoi said adding his government had submitted a memorandum to then-PM Dr Manmohan Singh on April 28, 2012, urging that Bangladeshi nationals who had to flee to India to escape persecution be allowed to stay in Assam on humanitarian grounds.
“The Central government had again sought the state’s view on December 26, 2013, when a writ petition on the issue was filed in the Supreme Court and the state government had stood by its previous stand,” Gogoi said
On whether the decision of the Centre will impart the Assam Accord, which was signed in 1985, redundant, Gogoi pointed that the Accord dealt with citizenship issue and this latest Central government’s directive only allowed these communities to stay in India.
The Central Government has decided, on humanitarian considerations, to exempt Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals belonging to minority communities who have entered into India on or before December 31, 2014, from the relevant provisions of rules and order made under the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and the Foreigners Act, 1946, in respect of their entry and stay in India without such documents or after the expiry of those documents, as the case may be.
The Central Government has accordingly issued two notifications in the Official Gazette on Monday under the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and the Foreigners Act, 1946.
Meanwhile, voices of protests are being raised in Assam from various organisations including the AASU, AJYCP, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) against the Centre’s decision and threatened agitation if it is implemented.
