Author: Correspondent
Publication: The Assam Tribune
Date: August 08, 2007
URL: http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=aug0907/at01
Quite oblivious to the raging controversy
over deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in the North-East, Union
Rural Development Minister, Raghu Prasad Singh today all but gave up his hands,
stressing that it was impossible for the Centre to expel the Bangladeshi nationals
from India. The Ministry's admission came at the end of a press interaction
through tele-conferencing organised by his Ministry with the media in Guwahati.
A question by media in Delhi whether jobs under National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (NREGA) currently under implementation in seven districts of
Assam, has also gone to illegal Bangladeshi migrants, led the Minister to
respond by saying that his Ministry was helpless in such matters because if
a person's name is enrolled in the Voters List then it was entitled to be
enrolled for jobs.
"The Rural Development Ministry has no
mechanism to detect such illegal migrants, who are availing of Central Government
funds," he said.
The Minister further asserted that India was
a big country and people were free to come and go. He explained the helplessness
of the Centre by stressing that Bangladesh Government was not willing to accept
these illegal migrants as their citizens. "What can we do if Bangladesh
is not ready to accept them," he said.
"We can't just pick them up and dump
them into the river," he argued.
"You in the media take over power and
we will give you five Bangladeshi for deportation. My bet is that you can't
do it," Singh said.
"We have accepted over 1 lakh refugees
during the war and fed them regularly," he said. Dismissing the problem
of illegal migration from Bangladesh as BJP's propaganda, the Minister said
it was ploy of the saffron party to mislead the country. Riots, regionalism,
casteism is what the party is known to propagate, he asserted.
Replying to a question, the Minister did not
rule out the possibility of some of the Rural Development funds falling into
the hands of ULFA. That is why the Ministry has asked the States to be vigilant
about fund leakages, he said.
