BENGALURU: Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara on Wednesday informed the Assembly that 137 illegal immigrants, including 25 Pakistanis, have been detained in the state. They will soon be deported to their respective countries after completing the procedure of informing their embassies through the Ministry of External Affairs, he said in his reply to senior BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal in the Assembly.
He said 84 illegal immigrants were found in Bengaluru city, 27 in Bengaluru Rural, 12 in Shivamogga, three in Hassan, one in Mangaluru and 10 in Udupi. In Vijayapura district, 33 Bangladeshis were traced in 2016 and all of them were deported then, he said. “There are no illegal immigrants now in Vijayapura,” he clarified.
He said the government is also serious about African nationals peddling narcotics in Karnataka and tabs are being kept on them .
But he expressed concern over Bangladeshis working at coffee plantations in Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and Sakleshpur. “Estate owners had got ration cards and electoral cards done for them,” he said. On Yatnal’s appeal to set up a unit of the National Investigation Agency in Vijayapura, Parameshwara said the state is not supposed to send a proposal as the Centre has to decide on its own.
Parameshwara said the police have taken action against the racket of diverting rice from the public distribution system and illegal country made pistol racket. On land mafia targeting elderly people to grab their land by creating fake documents, he said 27 cases have been registered and action has been taken against 173 accused.