Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the Centre’s high-level committee on “artificial” demographic changes due to illegal immigration and other unnatural causes will also assess whether a law is required to tackle the issue.
If illegal migrants left on their own, the BJP government in West Bengal will refrain from filing legal cases against them and facilitate their departure, he said here.
Speaking at a gathering after inaugurating and laying the foundation stone for development projects worth Rs 340 crore, Shah said the committee, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar, would submit its report within a year.
A notification issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday on the constitution of the High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC) said that “extensive challenges” have arisen from demographic changes due to illegal immigration.
“The high-powered committee will examine the causes behind the artificial demographic shifts that have occurred across the nation. It will deliberate on the remedial measures required, and, should the enactment of any specific legislation be necessary, it will address that requirement as well,” Shah said.
The Centre was determined to identify and expel every “ghuspaithiya” or infiltrator from the country, he said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to constitute the demographic change committee with this objective.
Shah criticised the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal over infiltration from Bangladesh, and claimed the situation has changed after the assembly elections in the state (which brought the BJP to power).“Now, the Bharatiya Janata Party governs 80 per cent of the country’s landmass, and in the recently concluded elections in Bengal, Didi (Mamata Banerjee) suffered a complete rout,” he said.
From Uttarakhand to Gangasagar, along the entire course of the Ganga, the BJP had succeeded in “hoisting the saffron flag”, said Shah.
Before the West Bengal elections, the BJP had pledged to start fencing work along the Bangladesh border within days of coming to power, he noted. Shah praised West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, stating that 600 hectares of land was handed over to the Border Security Force within seven days (after coming to power) for the fencing work.
“Additionally, 121 hectares of land in the Chicken’s Neck corridor has been transferred to the Government of India,” he said.
The Chicken’s Neck, also known as the Siliguri Corridor, is a narrow stretch of land connecting the northeastern states with the rest of India.
Citing media reports, Shah said infiltrators themselves have begun to return to Bangladesh on their own.
“Whereas under Mamata’s regime, infiltrations used to occur daily,” he claimed. Though detention centres have been established in West Bengal, the government wants illegal immigrants to voluntarily return to their places of origin, the Union minister said.
“If they leave of their own will, the Bengal government will not only refrain from filing any legal cases against them, but will also extend assistance to facilitate their departure,” Shah said, expressing hope that a large number of people would leave voluntarily before the launch of an identification drive.