GUWAHATI: Mizoram’s apex students’ association, Mizo Zirlai Pawl said that it would further intensify and expand the scope of its drive against influx if the state government “continues to remain silent and inactive against illegal migrants”.
The students association held a meeting on Tuesday evening and decided to continue with the anti-influx operation it took up on August 20.
“So we had a meeting yesterday and decided to approach the state government one more time on the influx issue. The government has so far remained a mute spectator and if it continues to do so we will have no other option but to intensify the operation and if needed put up more check gates to prevent influx,” Ricky Colney, the MZP representative to the North East Students’ Organisation, told The Shillong Times over phone from Aizawl on Wednesday.
Till date, MZP claims to have pushed back over 400 suspected Bangladeshi migrants into Assam as part of its operation following the publication of the complete draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam on July 30.
The Mizoram police had assisted the association in this regard in the border areas even as there is apprehension that illegal migrants could have entered the state before the check gates were put up.
The students association had set up “NRC check-gates” along the Assam-Mizoram border at Vairengte, Bairabi and Saiphai and continuously manned them since the past nine days. The association said the suspected migrants were checked and only pushed back after their names were not found in the NRC list.
“The check gates were put up in the most vulnerable areas as we apprehended that suspected Bangladeshi migrants (those who might be excluded from the draft NRC in Assam) could easily trickle into the state after the complete draft was published in Assam. Now, we are contemplating other routes as well through which there is a threat of influx,” Colney said.
Students unions in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and even Manipur have taken initiatives against illegal migrants in the wake of the NRC draft publication in Assam. Unlike Meghalaya though, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have in place the system of inner line permit, which is a special permit required to enter the states.
“We want the state government to put in place an effective mechanism to prevent illegal migrants from entering the state. Till date, they have only deployed some security personal at the check gates on the Assam-Mizoram border which is not enough,” he said.