Assam chief minister-elect Sarbananda Sonowal said he aims to seal the state's border with Bangladesh within two years to put an end to infiltration. He also listed the updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a long-standing demand aimed at identifying illegal immigrants who entered the state after 1971, the cut-off date for citizenship as stated in the Assam Accord, as his government's second top priority .The final NRC could pave the way for deportation of illegal immigrants who entered Assam after 1971 -a key poll promise of BJP .
A product of the student movement against `foreigners' in the 1980s, Sonowal, who steered BJP to victory in the recent elections, and his party had made infiltration one of its major poll planks. The total length of the Indo-Bangladesh border is 4,096 km, of which 263 km runs along Assam. On this stretch, 224 km has already been fenced, while around 40 km is riverine.
“The Indo-Bangladesh border is not completely sealed, especially in riverine areas, through which infiltration takes place,“ the 53-year-old said, adding that home minister Rajnath Singh had set a two-year time-frame for permanent sealing of the border.“We will work towards finishing (the exercise) within that time frame, including sealing the riverine border,“ he added.
According to a Supreme Court order issued in 2014, the final updated NRC was to be published on January 1, 2016, and verification of records completed by September 2015.So far, around 97% verification has been achieved across the state.
A product of the student movement against `foreigners' in the 1980s, Sonowal, who steered BJP to victory in the recent elections, and his party had made infiltration one of its major poll planks. The total length of the Indo-Bangladesh border is 4,096 km, of which 263 km runs along Assam. On this stretch, 224 km has already been fenced, while around 40 km is riverine.
“The Indo-Bangladesh border is not completely sealed, especially in riverine areas, through which infiltration takes place,“ the 53-year-old said, adding that home minister Rajnath Singh had set a two-year time-frame for permanent sealing of the border.“We will work towards finishing (the exercise) within that time frame, including sealing the riverine border,“ he added.
According to a Supreme Court order issued in 2014, the final updated NRC was to be published on January 1, 2016, and verification of records completed by September 2015.So far, around 97% verification has been achieved across the state.
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