The Bharat Raksha Manch (BRM) on Monday held a meeting here to demand for extending the exercise of holding the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Odisha. It pointed out that the first part of the draft of the NRC for Assam was published on January 1 this year.
The NRC is an exercise that is supposed to help identify and segregate names of illegal Bangladeshi migrants. Being conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court, the exercise faces a lot of opposition in Odisha.
The NRC was first prepared in 1951 in Assam after the conduct of the Census of that particular year. The register included particulars of all the persons enumerated during that Census. The BRM has been demanding that NRC be made mandatory in all the States where sizeable illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are present. In due time, the nation should have a detailed and composite NRC of its citizens.
A BRM delegation would submit a memorandum to the Odisha Governor in this regard. Speaking at the meeting, BRM convener Murali Manohar Sharma said Odisha is one of the most vulnerable and soft States in the matter of illegal Bangladeshi immigration. With its long coastline, largely unmonitored in spite of the dozen Marine Police Stations, the State has become the landing spot of illegal immigrants. The rising presence of Bangladeshis in different cities of the State has been brought to the notice of the State Government many times. The Chief Minister has himself admitted in the State Assembly to the presence of 3,800 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, but nothing has been done to deport them.
BRM national secretary Anil Dhir has said the rising crime rate in the State is largely due to this illegal population. They engage in theft, dacoity, highway robbery, cattle smuggling, human trafficking, temple thefts, and commercial sex rackets besides being a major threat to the internal security. The NIA too has put Odisha in its scanner as there are many sleeper cells of HUJI, lET and the Jamaat which are active here.