With Assam all set to release final National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft on Monday at 10 am online and across all NRC Sewa Kendras (NSKs) across the State, the Central Nagaland Tribes Council (CNTC) has urged the Nagaland Government to direct the police to thoroughly check Inner Line Permits (ILPs) and other documents to “keep an eye” on possible large-scale influx of illegal immigrants from Assam into Nagaland. It made the appeal to check the documents thoroughly as the ILP system had become “virtually ineffective”.
In a statement on Sunday, the Council also appealed to the Naga people to wake up from their deep slumber to the danger lying ahead and the “impending doom looming on our coming generations”. The statement said it was time for the Nagas to unite and stand up together as the future of Naga people was at stake in regards to the infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals.
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It also urged all villages and areas under it to remain “vigilant” and said the “illegal immigrants who did not possess valid documents should be deported”. The Nagaland Government on Friday had issued advisories to village, town and municipal authorities to strictly monitor and check possible infiltration of illegal immigrants. It also deployed additional police forces in the areas bordering Assam to check and prevent their influx into the State.
The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) urged the Government as well as the people of Nagaland on Thursday to take immediate steps to prevent “possible mass migration”. It also demanded a “strict mechanism” to monitor the entry and exit of migrants into the State and offered to help in spot verification of migrants at the State’s entry and exit points.
The CNTC said Nagaland had become an “open house for all outsiders” as there is no proper mechanism to control and the will to tackle the menace of unabated influx of illegal immigrants. It said the issue was crucial for people of the State as also for the entire North East. It also pointed out that Nagas, with a very small population, could not afford to keep blaming one another for the abnormal rise of migrant population in the State as the fault “lies on all of us”.
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Alleging that some Naga political groups recruited outsiders in their rank and file, the Council said it was a very serious issue for all the Nagas and called for discarding the “despicable act” immediately.
The CNTC also raised concern over issuing of indigenous certificates, trade licenses and vehicle permits randomly by Government agencies as well as by various local gaonburhas (village headmen) and colony chairmen “as their palms were greased” without thinking about the grave consequences for “our children’s future”. It asked the State Government to nullify all such trade licenses, vehicle permits and indigenous certificates issued to suspicious illegal immigrants.