Biometric technology will be put to use to identify the Rohingyas illegally staying in India, Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh has said.
The Minister, who was on a two-day visit to Kolkata to chair the 23rd Eastern Zonal Council meeting, said the State Governments had been asked to collect the biometrics of illegal immigrants so that the data could be sent to the country concerned.
“The State Governments have been asked to identify the Rohingyas and collect their biometrics,” the Minister said at the end of the meeting held at Bengal State secretariat Nabanna adding the data reports thus sent by the States to the Centre will then be sent to Myanmar through diplomatic channels for action.
The meeting was attended by Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Jharkhand counterpart Raghubar Das, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi and Odisha Finance Minister Sashi Bhushan Behra.
There are about 40,000 Rohingya immigrants staying illegally in India. While a majority of them stay in the State of Jammu & Kashmir the Bengal BJP has repeatedly accused the Trinamool Congress Government of harbouring the Rohingyas in Bengal too.
Singh also told in the meeting that Leftist ultras were one of the major security threats in the country and assured adequate central forces for the Maoist-affected States. This after the Bengal Government raised the issue of a probable withdrawl of central forces from the Maoist-hit Jangalmahal area.
According to sources the Centre had proposed to withdraw CRPF from Jangalmahal for election purpose in four States. The Bengal Government has registered a strong protest against the central move to withdraw central forces from the State.
The Minister however assured central forces would be redeployed if there was a need, sources said. The Home Minister also met Mamata Banerjee for 20 minutes but there was no comment on what transpired.