47,928 illegal immigrants detected in state: Assam government

The Assam government said that 47,928 illegal immigrants were detected in the state during the period between 1971 and 2014 and out of them 43 per cent are Hindus.

The Foreigners' Tribunals of the state declared these people as foreigners during this period.

Replying to a written question of AGP MLA Ponakan Baruah, Assam Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma who also holds the Home Department portfolio said that from 1971 to 2014 the Foreigners' Tribunals declared 47928 persons as foreigners and out of them 20,613 are Hindus and 27,309 are Muslims and six belonged to other religions.

According to the state government data, out of a total of 20,613 Hindus declared as illegal immigrants by the Foreigners' Tribunals, 8,139 are from Cachar district, 2884 from Guwahati city, 1574 from Lakhimpur district, 1038 from Dibrugarh district.

On the other hand, out of 27309 Muslims declared as illegal immigrants by the Foreigners' Tribunals, 4182 are from Jorhat district, 3,897 from Guwahati city, 2,829 from Dibrugarh district, 2,100 from Hojai district, 2,096 from Sivasagar district, 2,083 from Nagaon district, 2,013 from Cachar district, 1,710 from Lakhimpur district, 1,172 from Morigaon district.

According to the Assam Accord, the midnight of 24 March 1971 is the cut-off date for the detection and deportation of illegal migrants.

Citing the 2011 census, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "The Assamese-speaking people accounted for 48.38 per cent of the state's total population of 3.12 crore and the Bengali-speaking people accounted for 28.92 per cent of the total population."

On Baruah's question, if the state government was aware of the fact that the number of people speaking non-Assamese languages is rising and creating a threat to the indigenous communities, Sarma said the dispensation is monitoring the situation.