GUWAHATI: A total of 1, 23,829 cases are pending in 100 Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) in Assam and 1,43,466 people have been declared as foreigners in the state, the Centre has informed Rajya Sabha.
Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said 100 FTs are currently operating in Assam.
He that the total number of cases pending in these FTs as on December 31, 2021, is 1,23,829 while the total number of people declared as foreigners is 1,43,466.
The total number of people declared as Indians is 1, 21,598 whereas 329 persons have been deported to their countries of origin so far, said the minister.
He said that data of the total number of detention centres are being maintained by the various state governments.
The MHA has delegated the power to the state governments to make the required arrangements to run for these centres.
Minister Rai said FTs are quasi-judicial bodies in Assam and according to the state’s Home Department, initially 11 Illegal Migrant Determination Tribunals (IMDT) were set up which were later converted to tribunals after the Supreme Court scrapped the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983, in 2005.
The MHA has allocated Rs 69 crore till now for the functioning of FTs in the financial years 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22, the Ministry said.
The final draft list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published on July 30, 2018, to segregate Indian citizens living in Assam from those who had illegally entered the state from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971.
Nearly 40 lakh people were excluded from the final draft of the NRC.
In the course of the year, 36 lakh people filed claims against the exclusion; the remaining four lakh did not apply.