GUWAHATI, Jan. 2: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has attributed the substantial increase in infiltration from Bangladesh of late to the collapse of the textile industry following the political unrest in that country , and subsequent incentivisation by industrial units in India to import cheap labour from the neighbouring country.
“Every day, Assam police is detecting and pushing back 20 to 30 infiltrators from Bangladesh. The situation in Tripura is no different. This is an alarming trend and the matter has been taken up with the Centre and the central government is also very serious in addressing it. We have to target those industrial houses who are incentivising labourers in Bangladesh to come to India,” Sarma said during an interaction with mediapersons on New Year’s Day.
On the trend of illegal infiltration, the chief minister said, “When we tried to do our research on the trend of increasing influx, after the unrest in Bangladesh, the textile industry has virtually collapsed there. So, the labourers who were earlier working in the textile industry in Bangladesh are coming to India.”
“Many textile factory owners in India are also incentivising them, giving a good amount of money for importing cheap labour illegally to the country. This issue was raised in the past NEC meeting. I have also discussed the issue with Union home minister Amit Shah in my last meeting. So, this is an alarming situation as we have never detected so many infiltrators in earlier times,” he said.
The chief minister also informed that discussions on the alarming issue were also held with his counterparts in various Northeastern states and West Bengal.
The chief minister however, ruled out the influx of Hindu Bangladeshis, stating that the government had not detected any in the last five months.
“Once the crisis in Bangladesh happened and the economy collapsed there, obviously the majority community (Muslims) in Bangladesh was affected. So, in the textile industry also, most of the labourers there are also from the majority community. So far, we have detected and pushed back nearly 1000 infiltrators after the crisis in Bangladesh,” the chief minister said.
On the threat posed to the country by fundamentalists, he said, “We have recently busted a major terror module, arrested 23 persons and seized various weapons. Assam Police is aware about the threat posed by jihadi elements across the border. We are working overtime and conducting operations in coordination with the NIA and IB. We have even arrested such elements from Bengal and Kerala,” he said.