Response to the PIL seeking early deportation yet to be filed
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 17: Notwithstanding the explicit directions of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs about formulation of a roadmap to deal with the issue of illegal settlement of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas in Jammu and Samba districts, the PDP-BJP Coalition Government is handling the subject with complete non-seriousness and till date no strategy has been devised. Moreover, a Group of Ministers (GoM), which was specifically constituted to hold deliberations on the serious matter, has failed to come up with any suggestion so far.
Following revelations by the Government in the State Legislative Assembly about illegal settlement of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in Jammu and Samba districts early this year, several political and non-political organizations started raising hue and cry over the issue and demanded immediate deportation of the immigrants on the ground that they could become potential security risk and also lead to change of demographic character in the region.
The issue received the due attention of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, which sought from the State Government the steps being taken to check further flow of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis. The MHA even desired the State to suggest road-map to deal with those who have already settled in some selective locations in Jammu and Samba districts.
In the month of May this year, the Government constituted a Group of Ministers headed by Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh to go into the details of settlement of illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh and examine all relevant aspects relating them.
However, the Group of Ministers has failed to come up with remedial measures till date although the issue was deliberated in its few meetings, sources told EXCELSIOR, adding during the past two months even no meeting of the GoM has been convened thereby indicating that either the grave issue is being handled with non-seriousness or has virtually been dumped by framing Group of Ministers.
In its last meeting the Group of Ministers had sought detailed document from the administration backed by intelligence agencies reports on threats posed by the illegal settlement of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis on the ground that such an information would facilitate the Group in recommending the fate of those immigrants already settled and to check further influx but what happened thereafter remains a mystery, sources said.
“Group of Ministers is generally constituted to hold serious deliberations on some complex issues and suggest corrective measures in a time bound manner but in the case of illegal settlement of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis no seriousness is being shown and formulation of GoM has turned out to be an exercise in futility”, sources said, adding “Home Department is already in the possession of details vis-à-vis number of illegal immigrants, the activities being carried out by them for their survival and financial assistance being received by them from some Non-Governmental Organizations but still no strategy has been devised by the GoM to deal with the issue as desired by the Ministry of Home Affairs”.
It is pertinent to mention here that Jammu district administration few months back had even found some Rohingyas in the illegal possession of ration and Aadhar cards and fake State Subject Certificates. “Had there been required seriousness it was not possible for Group of Ministers to obtain each and every detail from the Home Department and Police Department in the shortest possible time to complete the assigned task”, sources said.
Meanwhile, Government has yet not filed response to the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking early deportation of illegal immigrants. In this PIL, the Division Bench of the State High Court has already issued notices to the Union of India and State Government seeking objections from them on the plea raised in the petition.
Besides seeking deportation, the petitioner has also prayed for withdrawal of all benefits given to illegal immigrants of Bangladesh and Myanmar from the State exchequer and from the schemes and benefits meant for the residents of J&K.
Follow our WhatsApp channel