BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh has granted Indian citizenship to over 5,400 illegal migrants from Bangladesh till June 2014 while, left-ruled Tripura deported about 7,700 illegal migrants in the last five years.
The disclosure by the two States formed a part of an effort by the Supreme Court to seek views of Centre and States on a PIl filed by NGO Swajan demanding refugee status to displaced Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Christians from Bangladesh.
lending support to the cause raised in the PIl, Madhya Pradesh in an affidavit said, “All 5,464 Bangladeshi immigrants residing in the State as on June 2014 have been rehabilitated. They have been provided with citizenship, ration cards, shelters and most people have been employed in various projects of the State or are running independent businesses, apart from being agriculturists.”
The PIl, filed by advocate Shuvodeep highlighted the plight of minorities both in Bangladesh and in India. The migrants who suffer religious persecution in Bangladesh are expelled under the erroneous tag of “foreign nationals”, it said. This fact was revealed by Tripura in its affidavit to the Court. The State indicated that since 1974 till October 2013, a total of 1.88 lakh Bangladeshi migrants were deported by the Mobile Task Force at the border.
Giving a religion-wise breakup of the migrants deported by the State in the last five years, out of 7,735 Bangladeshi infiltrators, 2,625 were Hindus and 5,022 were Muslims. Tripura’s affidavit confirmed that the inflow of migrants still prevailed and displaced minorities continue to be treated as illegal migrants. The bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi fixed the matter for hearing in January 2015 by when it expected Centre and other States to file their response.