KHNAM for ILP, but says not against development
SHILLONG: A day after Union Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said there would be no influx due to railways, KHNAM on Wednesday reiterated its demand for ILP before the railway project could be implemented.
Voicing their opposition to railways in Meghalaya, KHNAM said “illegal immigration poses a grave danger to our country, social harmony and economic well-being of the State”.
The party criticised the Centre and the State Government for failing to tackle influx in the State “as vote bank politics has added to the heightened tension of illegal immigration”.
The statement comes in reference to Gohain’s remark that marriage of Bangladeshi immigrants with local women has led to influx problem in the State.
KHNAM youth wing president Thomas Passah, in a press communiqué on Wednesday, gave details of ‘illegal immigration’ and stated that India has 15 billion Bangladeshi, 2.2 billion Nepalese and about a lakh of Tibetans. “It would be a joke to say that all those immigrants are married to tribals or residence of the North East, including Meghalaya.”
Earlier he said Gohain has taken mixed marriage to Bangladeshi as a sole reason for illegal migration, “which is an attempt to fulfil the national interest without taking into consideration the regional interest”.
At the same time, KHNAM said it was not against development but “if that development activities threaten our existence, we have to oppose such developmental project”.
KHNAM pointed out that Bangladesh is a major source of cheap labour with illegal migration from across the border being continued unabated for over five decades. The regional political party went ahead to state that the Task Force on Border Management, which submitted its report to the Centre in August 2000, also estimated 15 million Bangladeshis with about 3 lakh entering India illegally every year.
It urged the Union and the State governments to collaborate in safeguarding the indigenous people.
In 2003, the then Deputy Prime Minister L.K Advani estimated that about 15 million Bangladeshi were in India. In 2007 about 25,712 of the 5 lakh Bangladeshis, who came to India, did not return after the expiry of their visas while in 2006 more than 24,000 went missing from the 4.84 lakh Bangladeshis who had entered India with valid documents.
About 12 lakh Bangladeshis, who had entered India between 1972 and 2005 with valid documents have not returned home, India have been able to push back only 15,000 of them in 2005, 12,000 in 2006 and 11,500 in 2007.