Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has issued instructions to District Magistrates and the Commissioner of Police to identify illegal immigrants in Delhi, and take action in coordination with the Central government. “Lieutenant Governor’s attention has been drawn to reports on social media and other reliable sources that there is a sudden spurt in the number of illegal immigrants in Delhi. There is also a rise in encroachment by such people on public roads, footpaths, parks etc,” stated an official letter from LG’s office.
The letter has been forwarded by the LG’s Principal Secretary to the Chief Secretary of Delhi, Commissioner of Police, Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Chairman of New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). A senior official from the MCD told The Pioneer that in light of the letter, a drive will be carried out to identify and evict such people from the land belonging to the MCD, and any illegal immigrants will be reported to the law enforcement agency.
According to reports, at least 20,000 Rohingya are registered in India with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, also known as the UN Refugee Agency) and an estimated 1,100 such people live in New Delhi, including at the Kalindi Kunj camp in South-east Delhi.
Ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls, due early next year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Delhi have been accusing the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of “patronising the Rohingyas and Bangladeshi living illegally in the city and gaining votes from them”. The LG’s letter also mentioned that many illegal migrants are being given various ID cards in Delhi, and this has the potential to impact electoral politics, “there are reports that efforts are underway for getting their identity documents such as Aadhar, Election Identity Card, etc, prepared on the basis of fake documents and adopting a manipulative process.”
It added that these documents are being claimed as citizenship documents by the illegal immigrants. “Election Identity Card, if issued to illegal immigrants, provides them the most powerful right of democracy i.e. Right to Vote in our country. Giving such rights to illegal immigrants cannot be accepted by any Indian Citizen and such moves can even be detrimental to National security,” the letter stated.
The letter added that the Chief Secretary may issue instructions to District Magistrates through Divisional Commissioner to exercise extra caution in verification of people applying for identity documents. “Separately, Commissioner Police may also issue instructions to field level officials to be extra vigilant specially while undertaking inspections of squatters along road side and on vacant Government land,” it stated, adding that Delhi Police shall conduct a special drive for one month for identification of illegal immigrants and take further action in coordination with central agencies. “All government agencies should also ensure that no unauthorised occupation of public places takes place anywhere in the city as directed by the Supreme Court of India,” the letter read.
Reacting to the LG’s direction, Delhi BJP accused the AAP of viewing it through a political lens. Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva stated that previously, encroachments on Delhi’s footpaths and around parks were mostly done by hawkers, but in recent months, Resident Welfare Associations and trade organisations have consistently drawn attention to encroachments by Rohingyas and others, who have been settling along roadsides and in parks. “During this period, both small and large criminal incidents have occurred on the streets of Delhi, and in light of this, Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena has directed the Police Commissioner to take action. It is unfortunate that the AAP is politicising the serious issue of encroachments by Rohingyas and others, which is related to the security of Delhi and the BJP strongly condemns this,” he said.
Reacting to the letter by the LG, the AAP claimed that the BJP is merely using the issue of illegal immigrants for political gains. “A thorough investigation should be launched on how illegal immigrants are entering our country in the first place. For this, the direct responsibility lies with Amit Shah, and the Union Home Ministry,” the party said in a statement. It asked that if there are illegal immigrants, how many are there? “This is a massive failure, and the lack of action on detentions highlights it further,” they claimed.
Further, Delhi’s ruling party claimed that while on one hand, the BJP is granting citizenship to illegal immigrants, and on the other, it is staging a farce of an investigation. “The BJP must stop this hypocrisy and put a rest to its dirty politics,” the AAP said.
On November 12, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided multiple locations in poll-bound Jharkhand, apart from West Bengal, in a money laundering investigation linked to alleged illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals, official sources said. A total of 17 places were raided in the two neighbouring states by the Ranchi office of the federal probe agency, a day before the first phase of polling in Jharkhand.
Visuals of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel positioned outside a hotel located on Bariatu Road in Ranchi and a resort in the city were captured by media teams as ED teams scoured for documents, ledger entries and financial records inside. It was in September that the ED had filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to probe an instance of alleged infiltration, and trafficking of some Bangladeshi women into Jharkhand leading to the generation of alleged slush funds.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders had also accused the State Government of aiding such infiltration leading to the altering of the demographic landscape of the tribal-dominated areas of Santhal Pargana and Kolhan regions during the recent poll campaign. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday accused the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led coalition of converting Jharkhand into a ‘dharmashala’ for Rohingyas and Bangladeshi infiltrators. Earlier this week, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had announced that a committee would be formed, if the BJP is voted to power in Jharkhand, to identify and drive out infiltrators from the state besides reclaiming land grabbed by them.
