NESO urges Centre to form panel to delete names of foreigners, illegal migrants from voters’ list

The North East Students’ Organization (NESO), an apex body of eight influential students’ organizations in Northeastern states, on Monday urged the Prime Minister and Home Minister to constitute a Special Commission to undertake extensive revision of electoral rolls aimed at detecting and deleting the names of foreigners and illegal immigrants from the electoral rolls within a stipulated time.

The eight students’ organisations under the NESO, which organised demonstrations in seven northeastern states on Monday, also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah not to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 in the entire Northeast region.

The NESO also sent separate memoranda to the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister and the Chief Ministers of the region, highlighting the problems the region faces in view of the unabated influx of illegal migrants from the neighbouring countries.

“The unabated influx of illegal migrants has brought serious demographic changes in the Northeast region in particular and other parts of the country in general,” said the memorandum, signed by NESO Chairman Samuel B. Jyrwa and Secretary General Mutsikhoyo Yhobu.

It said that the continued influx of refugees and undocumented migrants from different countries has created a sense of insecurity and apprehension among the indigenous people that their culture, tradition, political identity, their control over land and existence itself would be swallowed up by the outsiders.

“The unguarded porous border has been used by fundamentalist groups to infiltrate into the region, thereby further threatening the existence of the indigenous people. There is every reason to believe that there are already a considerable number of militant fundamentalist groups operating in the Northeast with a design to overrun the whole of NE according to their whims and fancies. The region is presently facing an acute economic crisis because of the burgeoning population. There is a witnessing of low per capita income, and poverty is on the rise. Besides, the problem of unemployment is rising to several lakhs of people,” the memorandum said.

Demanding to take effective measures for the detection and deportation of all illegal foreigners from Northeast, NESO expressed serious concern and dissatisfaction over the non-implementation of the Assam Accord (1985), even after a gap of 40 years to review the various clauses of the Accord.

The organisation also urged the PM and the HM to extend the 'Inner Line Permit' in the entire Northeastern region. The ILP under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, is an official travel document that allows an Indian citizen to visit the ILP-enforced state and areas for a limited period and with a specific purpose. The ILP, which aims to protect the identity and existence of the Indigenous people, has been in force in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur.

The NESO also urged the Centre to take immediate initiatives to prepare a register of citizens by updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) 1951, which is the only official document on citizenship.

Meanwhile, the Tipra Motha Party, an ally of the ruling BJP in Tripura, has been agitating against the illegal infiltration into Tripura and has demanded to deport all illegal migrants to their countries.

A delegation of TMP led by party supremo Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma recently met the Election Commission of India in New Delhi and demanded to conduct the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Tripura be conducted, similar to the procedure being adopted in Bihar.