Infiltration sets meet agenda in Delhi

KOLKATA: In the wake of a growing ''consensus'' between deputy prime minister L K Advani and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattcharjee on the Bangladesh issue, home ministry officials will hold a meeting with their state counterparts to prepare a ''comprehensive plan to stop infiltration and deportations of illegal migrants''.
The meeting would be held on March 5 in Delhi, state home secretary Amitkiran Deb said on Friday.
The Centre has asked the state to furnish latest figures of the Bangladesh nationals who have been overstaying in West Bengal even after their visas were expired.
"Delhi is putting pressure to update our information on infiltration," an official said. According to a state government affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in 1998, 1,024,322 Bangladeshi nationals had overstayed their visas between 1972 to 1998. While 667,500 of them were Hindus, 349,738 were Muslims.
"Enquiries... revealed that in a majority of the of addresses are either fictitious or the Bangladeshi had never visited his referee after coming to India," said the affidavit.
It maintained that the number of Bangladesh nationals who have entered India ''clandestinely'' without valid documents is ''likely to be higher''.