Dimapur, April 5 (MExN): A consensus organization spearheading identification of illegal immigrants in Dimapur today lashed out at the Government of Nagaland that if identification of illegal immigrants in Nagaland “amounts to encroachment on legal jurisdiction of the government and law enforcing agencies,” the State should have acted against the menace in the first place.
The Public Action Committee (PAC) of Dimapur’s civil society took strong exception to the Government declaring the identification drive to be a breach of State jurisdiction when the State had taken no effective action till date to check the influx of illegal immigrants of Nagaland – or even against crimes such as murder, rape, extortion and the rampant kidnappings. Only when the people had assumed a job that originally should have been done by the state government, the State would come in claiming ‘jurisdiction’, a press release from the committee implied strongly today.
The committee had these words for the State: “The attention of Public Action Committee (PAC) on illegal immigrants has been drawn to Chief Secretary Lalthara’s statement that identification of illegal immigrants in Nagaland amounts to ‘encroachment on legal jurisdiction of the government and law enforcing agencies’. PAC lauds such bold statement that has come from none other than the State’s chief bureaucrat since it is the prerogative of the State to protect its citizens from rape, murder, kidnapping, and of course illegal immigrants who apart from committing anti-social activities cause a drain on the state economy and cause havoc on the social fabric of the state.”
The Government of Nagaland, the committee said, should have carried out its prerogative decades ago without NGOs having to wake them up. “This only shows that when it comes to governance, the role of the state as the protector of its citizens is next to nothing and the gruesome reality is quite different,” the committee reminded.
The PAC in its press note issued by its Coordinator Joel Nillo Kath referred to documents it accessed. In the past 47 years, that is from the date of formation of the state in 1963 till the year 2010, the committee said, the number of foreigners detected inside the state so far is a ludicrous and shameful figure of 28 persons. “Who is the government fooling with these figures when there are lakhs of Bangladeshis in the state? Does the word “governance” exist for Naga people? Was the state government sleeping all these years? More specifically, where was the State bureaucracy in the past 5 decade since it is their responsibility for formulating policies and decisions and its implementation in toto?”
The committee wondered whether the issue of illegal immigrants is “too undignified” for the State’s bureaucratic class and politicians to handle. The PAC did not mince words in ridiculing the Nagaland government further: “It is really pathetic to think that in the past 47 years, no policy decision was ever taken by any of the successive governments on illegal immigrants or any Act passed by the state legislature to contain the unabated flow of Bangladeshi aliens inside the state. To add insult to injury, out of the 28 foreigners detected, the police could woefully deport only 20! What happened to the other 8?!”
Further, the PAC stated, there are reportedly 2 Crore Bangladeshis thriving illegally in India and their number in Nagaland is easily in several lakhs.
“It is a fact that there has been a major policy failure as far as Bangladeshi issue is concerned and the bloated bureaucracy in Nagaland and the politicians should be squarely blamed for the failure to deal comprehensively with this issue.”
The PAC reminds that as per Indian criminal jurisprudence the Indian legal system does not exclude the scope of public’s involvement in dealing with crimes, rather even private persons may arrest culprits (or illegal Bangladeshis) so as to assist law enforcement agencies under relevant sections of CrPc and Rules for Administration of justice and police in Nagaland 1937. Stating so, the PAC said Lalthara’s assertion that the NGOs are “taking law into their own hands” is “highly condemnable and bereft of facts.”
The PAC then denounced the chief secretary’s insinuating that the identification drive against illegal immigrants is for monetary gain. His statement that “Blank forms and undertakings being issued by realizing certain fees” should be spelt out clearly since it has caused much confusion and consternation.PAC is puzzled as to how any organization can issue “filled-up forms” to any registering persons unless it is in the form of ‘blank forms,’ the PAC said.
“Public memory is short but as a reminder, it is pertinent to mention that a very prominent government department was once issuing forms for Rs. 500 when it could have charged a nominal amount. Where was the CS then?” The organization reminded that the public understands the PAC as an organization formed to tackle crimes committed by illegal immigrants in the wake of the gang rape of a Naga woman on February 6. “Repeated acts of crimes against Nagas by illegal immigrants and the failure of the state to protect its citizens forced the hand of Naga Council, tribal hohos, women hoho, GBs, student organizations, senior citizens and public-spirited persons to form PAC in order to identify illegal immigrants…”
The PAC reminded further of the reality that most contractors and the “big shots” receiving government largesse are against the verification drive for the simple reason that there is now a shortage of laborers, who are mostly “illegals.” Hence, the PAC stated, such individuals stand to gain the most if verification drive is derailed but this is not going to happen.
The PAC calls illegal immigration into Nagaland as the “biggest time-bomb waiting to explode rather than blaming NGOs for the mess the government created by doing nothing in the first place.”
The formation of Special Task Force (STF) by the government is laudable, the organization added. “…but no government can tackle this issue unless there is a Public-Government partnership. PAC is doing its job not because it desperately wants to carry out the job of identifying illegal immigrants but because Naga people desperately need to save itself from total assimilation into an alien culture.”
