Assam govt to intensify drive to identify illegal foreigners: CM Himanta

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said the state government would enforce a 1950 law to identify and evict illegal foreigners.

He claimed that the law empowers the district commissioners to declare individuals as illegal immigrants and initiate eviction proceedings.

Speaking during a special day-long Assembly session, he alleged that Congress does not value 'citizenship', as out of four family members of one of its leaders, three are foreigners.

It was an apparent jibe at the opposition party's state president Gaurav Gogoi, who was seated at the visitors gallery of the Assembly in front of the treasury bench, whom the chief minister had been targeting for his alleged Pakistan links through his British wife.

Sarma, replying to issues of detection and deportation of foreigners, said the state government will implement the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, for the purpose.

It allows the district commissioner to declare illegal foreigners and evict them.

Sarma said a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court had recently ruled that the Act is in force and the government can proceed under its provisions.

He said more than 300 illegal Bangladeshis have been deported in recent months.

Responding to AIUDF MLA Rafikul Islam's caution that foreigner detection should be handled carefully because "citizenship is a most valued asset for any individual," Sarma doubled down on his criticism of the Congress.

"Rafikul Islam has said citizenship is the most valuable asset, but it may not be so for Congress as they have people in whose family out of four members, three are foreigners," he said.

Sarma had been claiming that not only has Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi's wife retained her British citizenship, but their two minor children are also not Indian nationals.