BHUBANESWAR: Law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan on Monday said that the government has already started the process of identifying Bangladeshis staying illegally in different districts of the state.
The minister told media persons here that the government has issued directions to all district collectors, coastal security agencies and formed a Special Task Force to coordinate the process of identifying the undocumented Bangladeshi nationals in the state.
"We have already started the process of identifying illegally staying Bangladeshis staying in both urban and rural areas. No foreign national residing without valid legal status will be allowed to stay in Odisha,” he added.
Stating that the Odisha government has taken a strong stand against persons illegally staying in the state, the minister said that different engineering departments of the state government have been asked not to engage any Bangladeshi or foreign national without valid documents.
“Identification of illegal Bangladeshi nationals who have come on several occasions and settled here without any valid documents like visa and work permit will be conducted soon,” he added.
While replying to a question in the budget session of the Assembly in March this year, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had stated that a total of 3,738 Bangladeshi infiltrators were identified in the state earlier.
The highest number of 1,649 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants was found in Kendrapara, followed by 1,112 in Jagatsinghpur, 655 in Malkangiri, 199 in Bhadrak, 106 in Nabarangpur and 17 in Bhubaneswar. He had said that police have registered criminal cases against 41 Bangladeshis in the state during the last 10 years.
The state government had started the process of identifying Bangladeshis staying illegally in Odisha after the military coup in Bangladesh last which had increased the threat of infiltration.