KENDRAPARA: The issue of deportation of suspected Bangladeshis from the seaside villages of Kendrapara district has cropped up again after the final draft of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) was released, leaving 40 lakh people out of the list.In 2005, the State Government had issued “Quit India” notices to 1,551 suspected Bangladeshis under the provisions of Citizenship Act and Foreigners Act after detecting them as illegal immigrants. However, it has not been followed up since more than 13 years.
“No further decision has been taken on the matter of their deportation”, Kendrapara Collector Reghu G said.
The infiltration of illegal immigrants from the neighbouring country has been a major issue in the district. Not only have they been living in the seaside villages but also had found jobs in the Government. In 2003, the district officials had suspended a teacher of a primary school in Ramnagar, Gouranga Baidya, on the charges of being an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh.The district administration, in 2010, had removed an Anganwadi worker, Aparna Pal, from her job at Ramnagar of Mahakalapada block after she was detected as an illegal immigrant. The administration again in 2013 had deleted the names of as many as 1,700 people from the voters’ list in Mahakalpada and Rajnagar blocks as they could not produce their land records, birth certificates and other documents to prove their Indian citizenship.
Further, in 2007, one Khokan Sheikh was convicted by the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Kujang, on charges of illegally staying in the port town of Paradip without visa or citizenship documents. He had been staying there for more than three years.
Acknowledging the issue, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had informed the Assembly that 3,987 Bangladeshis were illegally staying in the State. The highest number of 1,649 Bangladeshi infiltrators were in coastal Kendrapara district followed by 1,112 in Jagatsinghpur district.
There were 655 infiltrators in Malkangiri, 313 in Bhadrak , 150 in Balasore, 106 in Nabarangpur and two in Baragarh. The publication of NRC has raised fresh hopes of action against illegal immigrants in the district. “The Narendra Modi-led NDA Government is serious against illegal immigrants. We hope the State Government will also take up the matter and pursue the Centre again to deport foreign nationals from the district,” said Amarbar Biswal, vice-president of Kendrapara Citizen Forum.
Cong sees plot in BJD support to NRC
Bhubaneswar: The BJD support to the National Register for Citizens (NRC) in Parliament has once again ruffled political feathers in the State. The Congress on Wednesday termed the move as yet another instance of a tacit understanding between the ruling party and the BJP.