A problem once ‘resolved’ raised again 27 years later

The past couple of weeks have seen rallies in Jorhat,Sivasagar,Dibrugarh,Lakhimpur,Nagaon,Guwahati,Naharkatiya,Golaghat,Sonari and various other towns. Some have been organised by parties such as the AGP and the BJP,and some by student unions AASU and the AJYCP. In Jorhat and Nagaon,senior citizens,college teachers and others joined hands with these groups.

Thursday had seen a massive rally by the North-East Students’ Organisation in Guwahati. On Friday,Meghalaya Governor Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary came out in support of the oust-Bangladeshi agitation. And on Sunday,50 organisations brought out a joint rally in Kokrajhar.

“Yes,the Kokrajhar incidents have brought to the fore the shape of things to come due to unabated influx of people from Bangladesh. What is happening to the Bodo community within the Bodoland districts is going to happen to the entire Indian population of Assam soon if influx is not stopped and the immigrants not thrown out,” asserts AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya.

It was the AASU,then headed by Prafulla Mahanta,that had signed the 1985 Assam Accord with the government in presence of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. It has been complaining of non-implementation of the vital clauses that pertain to detection and deportation. “Twenty-seven years is not a joke. And,if the government could erect a foolproof fence along the Pakistan border in record time,what prevented it from doing the same on the Bangla border is inexplicable,” says Bhattacharyya.

Of the 267.30 km Assam-Bangaldesh border,over 55 km remains open because of various reasons (see box). The statistics were placed in the Assembly by Border Areas Development Minister Siddique Ahmed in July this year.

Assam Assembly records show that every year the government has been announcing the next March 31 as “deadline” for completion of the border fence work. This has been in practice for the past 11 years; the current “deadline” is March 31,2013.

Vanishing trick

According to figures placed in the Assembly in July,various Tribunals (initially both IMDT Tribunals and Foreigners’ Tribunals and from 2005 onwards Foreigners’ Tribunals) have between August 15,1985,and April 30,2012,declared 54,500 persons in Assam as “foreigners” from Bangladesh who had illegally entered the state. While the government claimed it had “deported” 2,431 to Bangladesh during these 27 years,39,287 have “absconded” with the government machinery not being able to trace them.

The remaining 12,782 registered themselves in Foreigners’ Regional Registration Offices. These people belong to the 1966-1971 stream who,under the Assam Accord,remain disenfranchised for 10 years from the date of confirmation as “foreigners” and are to be subsequently treated as Indian citizens.

“Over 54,000 is not a very small figure in a state like Assam whose total population is 3.11 crore as per the Census of 2011,” says Alaka Sarma,a former legislator and senior AGP leader. “One must also remember that names of over 1.53 lakh persons have been prefixed ‘D’ in the electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India,‘D’ denoting doubtful.”

Citizens’ register

Another means of detecting illegal migrants was the updating of the National Register of Citizens prepared in 1951. “While the Assam Accord provides for revision and upgrade of the NRC by including all persons whose names could be linked to the state’s electoral rolls of 1971,this process is yet to take off in the right manner,not to speak of completion,” says the AASU’s Bhattacharyya.

In a tripartite discussion on implementation of the Accord,a decision was taken to update the NRC within two years,or by 2007. The tripartite meeting was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Registrar General of India notified two pilot projects on June 1,2010,in two revenue circles — Chhaygaon and Barpeta Sadar — but the project was stalled after its launch,following violent protests by the All Assam Minority Students’ Union and its allies,which want a fresh NRC,not based on the 1951 register.

The government on March 17 announced that work would resume on July 1. It did not. On August 31,Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said it would resume soon and be completed within three years. The AASU is not convinced. “The government is simply hoodwinking the people. We want the process completed before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,” it said in a statement.

Copies of the 1951 NRC are,however,not available everywhere. It has been officially admitted that the NRC is not available for six of the 27 districts —Sivasagar,Cachar,Dima Hasao,Chirang,Baksa and Karbi Anglong. Moreover,complete records of the NRC as well as electoral rolls of 1966 and 1971 are available only for six districts — Dhubri,Goalpara,Hailakandi,Karimganj,Nagaon and Sonitpur.

If that was not enough,the directorate of Assam Accord Implementation,established in 2006,has remained headless for nearly a year now,with the last incumbent transferred out.

Last week,Gogoi announced his government would publish a white paper on implementation of the Assam Accord by the first week of October. “It is our government,whether at the Centre or in the state,that implemented most of the provisions,” he said. He said the white paper would contain comparative figures of what previous AGP and BJP regimes had done to implement the accord.

FOREIGNER COUNT

54,500

Persons declared foreigners from Bangladesh between August 15,1985,and April 30,2012

2,431

Said to have been deported since 1985

39,287 “absconding”

12,782

Registered in Foreigners’ Regional Registration Offices. These belong to 1966-1971 stream,will stay disenfranchised for 10 years from date of confirmation as “foreigners” and are to be subsequently treated as Indian citizens.

BORDER OPENINGS

267.30 km

Assam-Bangladesh border

44.23 km

Riverine and other areas declared “unfit” for fencing

11.44 km

Land border yet to be fenced. The Assam PWD had been assigned 179.20 km and the CPWD the rest. The unsealed land border comprises 4.92 km in Dhubri,3.50 km in Karimganj,another 2.87 km in Latitila-Dumabari of Karimganj district that remains disputed,and 0.150 km in Cachar

As per figures cited in Assembly