New Delhi, Aug 23: Concerned over the influx of illegal immigrants to Assam, a body of senior citizens from the state today urged the political parties not to oppose repealing of the IMDT Act, 1983, for the sake of electoral gains. Maintaining that Illegal Migrants (determination by tribunals) Act was full of flaws, the Swaraj mission, an apolitical association of lawyers, teachers and senior citizens of Assam, favoured its repeal and supported the Illegal Migrants Laws (repealing and amending) Bill, 2003, placed in Parliament. Releasing a report in the form of a booklet on the illegal immigrants at a press conference here, the mission said some parties by opposing the bill have been playing vote bank politics in Assam, despite the fact that "the IMDT Act is incompetent for detection and deportation of illegal migrants from Bangladesh". In addition to repealing of the act, other measures have to be taken to curb the inflitrators from Bangladesh which has caused serious law and order problem in the state, chairman of the mission, D C Mahanta said.
"We have argued that the repeal of this controversial act alone may not be sufficient if it is not accompanied by other measures. In this context we have recommended compiling a register of foreign nationals along with national register of citizens," he said.
Deva Kanta Kakati, retired IG, Assam police said the IMDT Act has to be repealed and claimed it has been ineffective in the last 20 years as only 20,000 Bagladeshis could be deported at the cost of Rs 400 crore. Bureau Report