With the Gauhati High Court judgment of last month rocking the state over the dangers posed by large-scale infiltration of Bangladeshis to the state, the Assam Government is finally set to take action.

Responding to two judgments made by Justice B K Sharma of the Gauhati High Court, in one of which the judge pulled up authorities for allowing a Bangladeshi national to procure an Indian passport on the strength of documents issued by an Assam government official, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi issued instructions to initiate departmental proceedings against the police official who had certified foreign national Abdul Hasim as an Indian. He also announced the decision to set up a high-level committee to identify the loopholes in the existing system of detection of foreigners and to suggest remedial measures.

In one of his judgments B K Sharma had directed the police to take custody of 49 persons, declared as foreigners by the court, until their deportation. Now, the Chief Minister has suggested activating police station-level committees comprising officials and leading citizens in order to report any suspected foreign national. These committees should meet at least once a month, he said.