Bhubaneswar: Odisha Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan Monday said the government has already started the process of identifying Bangladeshis staying illegally in different districts of the state.
The government has issued direction to all district collectors, coastal security agencies and formed a Special Task Force to coordinate the process of identifying the undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants in the state.
“We have already started the process of identifying illegal migrants staying in both urban and rural areas. No foreign national residing without valid legal status will be allowed to stay in Odisha. Different engineering departments of the state government have been asked not to engage any Bangladeshi or foreign national without valid documents. The government has taken a strong stance in this regard,” Harichandan told reporters in Bhubaneswar.
In April, Odisha’s Panchayati Raj minister Rabi Narayan Naik and Food Supplies minister KC Patra had said that the state would identify all foreign nationals staying in the state illegally.
Naik had said that illegal settlers are being identified from gram panchayat level, Patra said that the government has decided to deny ration cards availed by such persons in a fraudulent manner.
Meanwhile, the Commissionerate of Police, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Sunday held a meeting of officers-in-charge of all police stations and discussed the issue of illegal Bangladeshi migrants staying in the twin cities.
Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena instructed all police stations to gather detailed data on undocumented foreigners, particularly Bangladeshi nationals, and take appropriate legal action. He also asked the police to investigate how these (illegal settlers) people entered Bhubaneswar, their activities, and whether they possess valid documents.
Police sources said that the Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch in this regard had arrested 10 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, including six men, three women and a juvenile from Bhubaneswar railway station here in March.
The STF has located a large number of such illegal settlers in the districts of Khurda, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Ganjam and Puri.
The illegal settlers are engaged in construction work, scrap collection, and street vending.
In March this year, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, while replying to a question in the Assembly, said that the police have registered criminal cases against 41 Bangladeshis in the state during the last 10 years.
He said a total of 3,738 Bangladeshi infiltrators were identified in the state earlier. The highest number of 1,649 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants was found in Kendrapara, followed by 1,112 in Jagatsinghpur, 655 in Malkangiri, 199 in Bhadrak, 106 in Nabarangpur and 17 in Bhubaneswar.
PTI