The Union government submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court on December 11 stating that 32,381 people were “detected to be foreigners” by Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) in Assam since 1966.
Replying to a question on number of persons in Assam who were granted citizenship between the years 1966-1971 under Section 6A (2) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, the government said 17,861 persons registered with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) till October 31 this year.
The Centre said 3,34,966 cases were disposed of by 100 FTs operational in Assam till October 31, and 97,714 cases were pending. It said that till December 1, 8,461 cases arising out of FTs were pending before the Gauhati High Court.
The top court is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Section 6A is a special provision inserted into the 1955 Act in furtherance of a Memorandum of Settlement, called the ‘Assam Accord’, signed on August 15, 1985, by the then Rajiv Gandhi government with the leaders of the Assam Movement to preserve and protect the Assamese culture, heritage, linguistic and social identity.
The government’s affidavit said “it is not possible to collect accurate data of illegal migrants living in various parts of the country” as such foreign nationals enter the country in a “surreptitious and clandestine manner.”
‘Bengal’s non-cooperation’
The affidavit filed by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla said that due to the “non-cooperation” of the West Bengal government, the timely completion of fencing, a vital national security project, along the Bangladesh border had been pending.
It said the project was delayed due to various land acquisition issues by the State government.
“It is submitted that the West Bengal government follows a far slower, more complex Direct Land Purchase Policy even for national security projects such as border fencing. If West Bengal cooperates in acquiring and handing over the land for fencing, the Central government shall complete the process of fencing without any delay,” the affidavit said. Out of the feasible length of 435.504 km along the Bangladesh border that remains to be fenced, about 286.35 km is pending due to land acquisition.
“The State government has not adopted the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation Act, 2013. As per this Act, in cases of urgency, the appropriate government can take possession of any land needed for a public purpose and such land shall there upon vest absolutely in the government, free from all encumbrances,” the affidavit said.
The affidavit said the Ministry of Home Affairs had spent ₹122 crore on FTs in the past five years. “Monitoring of deportation of detected foreigners and convicted foreigners in Assam is done by a standing committee headed by a Joint Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of External Affairs and having a member from the State government of Assam. The standing committee has held six meetings so far in this regard,” it said.
Since 2017, the affidavit said 14,346 foreigners had been deported from across the country for various reasons such as overstay or visa violation among others.
