NEW DELHI, June 3: The Centre is likely to turn down the plea for cent percent reservation for Assamese people being demanded by the AASU but it is inclined to sanction about 50 percent reservation though it highly disapproves of the term indigenous used by the students organization, highly placed sources told The Assam Tribune here today. The issue of reservation for indigenous people that currently is the subject of a hot debate in the state has made the central government sit up and take notice, even as the sub-committee that was assigned the job of recommending the safeguards decided to have few more sittings to finalise the proposals. The sub-committee on implementation of Clause VI of the Assam Accord has the joint secretary (Northeast). G K Pillai as chairman and representatives of AASU and Assam government as members. The only silver lining is that the central government shares the perception that Assamese people might be reduced to minority in their own state, if proper safeguards are not put in place. The central government is also likely to accept AASU definitionthat only those people and their descendents, whose names figure in voters list of 1952 and the National Register of Citizens oof 1951, be considered as indigenous. Sources who are familiar with the ongoing dialogue with the AASU, said that NRC of 1951 and voters lists were found to be the only acceptable parameters for defining Assamese people a multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-ethnic community. Significant in this connection, is the decision of the central government to sanction additional funds for micro filming the NRC and voters list to the Assam government. The Assam government has already issued instructions to deputy commissioners and superintendents of police to take steps to preserve these vital documents that is going to play a crucial role. According to information with the ministry of home affairs the NRC is not available in only seven districts of the state where the voters list of 1952 will be used, sources disclosed. Parts of the reason why the central government nurses an apprehension is the unusual 77 percent growth of Muslim population as against 42 percent growth of Hindus. 'Though 2001 census will give a clear picture we fear that it is Muslim population growth rate is likely to go up even further,' sources said. But the central government is likely to tread very cautiously on this issue fully aware of the pitfalls and implications involved. Sources said that though the AASU has demanded 100 percent reservation of seats in the state Legislative Assemblies and other government and non-government bodies, it is unacceptable to the Centre. There is no reason to grant 100 percent reservations as otherwise the flavour of democracy will be lost, sources said. The safeguards being explored includes declaring over 50 percent of the Assembly seats as reserved for Assamese people where non-Assamese would not be allowed to contest though they would still enjoy the right to vote in the reserved constituencies. The reservations in itself would not hinder the democratic process and the non-Assamese that is; those whose names are not on the NRC and the Voters List need not harbor any apprehensions as they would still enjoy the right to participate in the electoral process though in the reserved constituencies they would not be allowed to contest. But they would be free to contest in the unreserved constituencies, sources asserted. But what the Union government is sore at is the use of term indigenous people by the AASU. Even the Assam Accord does not use the term and all it says is that the identity of the Assamese people would be safeguarded. The AASU has been strongly advised to desist from using the term as it has created a lot of confusion in the state. (Kalyan Barooah; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 4, 2000)

GUWAHATI, June 7: In a fresh move, the United People's Party of Assam (UPPA) and the United Minorities Front (UMF) have come under one umbrella to mobilise the people against the 'indigenous formula' made by the Centre, state government and the AASU. The move is attributed to a pre-election understanding of both UPPA and UMF to woo support from the minority people before the assembly polls which are due next year. Addressing a joint press conference here today, the irrigation minister and leader of the UPPA, Abdul Muhib Mazumdar and the president of the UMF, HRA Choudhury respectively said that they would never accept the 'indigenous formula' arrived at the tripartite meeting held here recently rather they would mobilise the people against it. Criticising the state CPI and the AASU, the leaders said that they will oppose the demand tooth and nail that National Register of Citizens (NRC) and 1952 electoral roll should be the basis for determining the indigenous people of the state. "The demand is aimed at creating confusion and division among the people and it will destroy the entire social fabric too,' they stated. Mazumdar, who is also a Cabinet minister of the four-party alliance government, however, clarified that this would not affect the ongoing alliance. "We have lodged our protest only against our alliance partners,' he said. The leaders also advocated reservation of seats for all ethnic groups living in the state on the basis of their population ratio. Criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its demand regarding restructuring of 36 constituencies they said that the party is not willing to either detect or deport the foreigners from the state. BJP is also trying to hoodwink the people by issuing statements which are not based on fact,' the leaders said, adding that despite its claim about presence of foreign nationals in the state, BJP is yet to take any comprehensive step in this regard. Mazumdar revealed that entire Indo-Bangla border has remained open, but instead of taking any pragmatic step, the BJP is trying to ignore the issue. He also cautioned the BJP not to create confusion among the people in the name of 'foreigners' issue. "We have also demanded immediate deportation of foreign nationals as per the Assam Accord," he added. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 8, 2000)

GUWAHATI, June 11: Census work in 25-30 per cent of the city's municipal areas is yet to be completed despite the lapse of 10 days from the scheduled date of completion of the first phase of census operation in Assam. Due to this, the Kamrup district administration has failed to submit its completion report to the census directorate, unlike other districts of the state where the census operation is almost complete. The areas within the city where the census operation is yet to be completed are Khanapara, Dakhingaon, Kahilipara besides others. Speaking to The Northeast Daily, an official of census directorate said that improper demarcation of the municipality wards has been cited as one of the primary reasons for the delay by the district administration. This has happened despite the deputy commissioner's instruction to the GMC to properly demarcate the wards before the commencement of the operation, the official pointed out. "Moreover, as proper maps were not provided to the personnel, some enumerators did not visit certain areas thinking that these wards fell in somebody else's jurisdiction," he added. Interestingly, a senior state census officer's house in Khanapara area of the city was till Sunday left out of the purview of the census operations. Drawing comparisons with the operations carried out in the hill district of Karbi Anglong, the official said that "even in such a district where 2,000 villages are located in far-flung areas, the first phase of census operations was completed in May 27." Work in only certain flood affected areas of Hailakandi and Karimganj districts are not complete due to the rains, but it too would be completed soon and it hardly constitutes 10 per cent of the operation, he added. Meanwhile, the district administration has assured the directorate that it would expedite the matter and submit the completion report soon, the official added. (Anirban Choudhury; The Northeast Daily; Guwahati; June 12, 2000)

GUWAHATI, June 12: The Assam police has given quit India notice to more than 500 Bangladeshi nationals who failed to register their names in the foreigners register within six months of their identification as foreigners by the Immigrant Tribunal in Assam. Disclosing this to The Asian Age, highly-placed official sources said that proposed plan of the Union home ministry to introduce joint patrolling by the Border Security Forces and the Assam police on the international border with Bangladesh to check influx is yet to materialise. Regretting the unabated flow of influx from Bangladesh, sources handling with the job of identifying and deporting the foreigners said that the controversial Illegal Migration (Determination by Tribunal) Act is the main stumbling block in expediting the process. They added that recently some forces have started helping the immigrants to settle in Assam by providing them with names of "fake Indian father." The sources said that there are groups of people who gather the names of dead persons from the voter lists and new entrants are using the names of dead persons to justify their Indian credentials. He pointed out that immigrants also keep on changing their routes to cross the international border. As already reported by The Asian Age, the BSF, that came into existence first in Assam to man the border with then Pakistan, has completely failed in containing the infiltration. Justifying these points, sources said the Assam police was manning the international border alone between 1952-66 and in 15 years more than two lakhs foreigners were deported. Ironically since 1966, when the BSF was deployed, this process received a serious setback. The officially-available figure of deportation between 1966-84 also reflects this as deportation came down to 1.31 lakhs, the sources added citing the records of the Assam Border Police. The process again received a severe jolt when the controversial IMDT Act came into existence in 1984 and since then hardly 23,000 foreigners could be deported because of loopholes in the act providing protection to foreigners, sources said. (Manoj Anand; The Asian Age; New Delhi; June 13, 2000)

GUWAHATI, June 12: Given a chance with proper facilities, the Assam police can do a much better job in checking infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals into Assam than the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel as from the records available, it is evident that the state police men did a much better job than the central forces. Official sources told The Assam Tribune today that the state government formed the Assam BSF with four battalions in the early 1950s with the objective of checking the smuggling of rice to the erstwhile East Pakistan and during the period from 1952 to 1966, the force detected over 2.50 lakh foreigners and about two lakh of them were deported. In 1966 the job of manning the border was handed over to the BSF and since then the number of foreigners detected and deported from Assam has come down. According to records available, during the period from 1966 to 1984 about 1.50 lakh foreigners were detected and about 1.30 lakh of them were deported. However, this figure includes about 50,000 Bangladeshi nationals who entered Assam during 1971 war. Interestingly, the number of foreigners detected and deported came down drastically since the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act came into effect and during the period from 1985 till date only about 22,000 foreigners have been detected, which proves that the IMDT Act is a major hurdle in the way of detection and deportation of foreigners. Giving details of the problems faced by the police in detecting and deporting foreigners under the provisions of the IMDT Act, official sources pointed out that under the provisions of the Act, the place cannot arrest, search or interrogate a suspected foreigner. The police even cannot force a suspect to produce documents, sources added. Sources further said that though the Border police force has been given the mandate of identifying and deporting foreigners it is in fact very difficult to detect a foreigner once he is inside the country as the people of the border areas speak the same language and have same ethnic features. The best way is to check infiltration at the border, sources added. It further said that in the areas dominated by the Muslim immigrants, the local people do not come forward to help the police in detecting foreigners and most of the foreigners deported in recent years are Hindus. In fact during a visit to the Assam-Bangladesh border areas in the Dhubri sector recently, this correspondent witnessed that erection of border fencing and posting of the BSF along the border have failed to check infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals into Assam and uabated infiltration is still going on. Lack of coordination between the BSF and the Border Police Force is another cause of concern as it was noticed that the BSF did not allow the Assam police men to patrol in the border roads and once a foreigner is inside the country, it is almost impossible to detect him. In the recent tripartite meeting on the implementation of the Assam Accord, the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) demanded joint patrolling by the BSF and the Assam Police along the border and the proposal was accepted by the central government on principle. But till date the joint patrolling has not started. Official sources also said that the state police has time and again demanded that they should be allowed to patrol in the sensitive areas along the border to check infiltration. The Assam police should be allowed to carry out patrolling at least along the routes frequently used by the Bangladeshi nationals to infiltrate into the country as the local police men can do a better job in checking infiltration because they know the local conditions. Official sources further said that the 3000 odd border police men posted all throughout the state have been directed to conduct regular surveys in the major construction sites as well as in the slums for detection of foreign nationals. Official sources said that the government do not have any estimate of the number of foreign nationals living in the state. However, the abnormal population explosion in Assam and the fact that the population of Bangladesh reduced by two crores proved that a large number of Bangladeshi nationals have infiltrated into India. (R Dutta Choudhury; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 13, 2000)

GUWAHATI, June 12: The Assam government has directed all district superintendents of police to verify the identity of all labourers who are engaged in different construction work throughout the state. The state government also directed the police to make an inquiry into the identity of persons living in the slums. These measures have been taken to spot illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam. A highly placed state government source said that the orders have been issued recently where the SPs were directed to make a thorough inquiry about the identity of the labourers and also to report the findings to the government immediately. "The step has been taken following reports that many illegal immigrants are living in Assam as construction workers. The inquiry will also cover the slum areas of the state which are also probable hideouts of the illegal immigrants," said a senior Assam police official. Sources stated that all the 3,000 personnel of the Prevention of Infiltration of Foreigners scheme would assist the districts police in this special operation. Sources informed that the Illegal Migrants (Determination Tribunal) Act, 1983, is the main hurdle before the Assam government to identify and deport the illegal immigrants. "The clauses of this controversial Act is such that even police cannot search, summon and interrogate anyone about his/ her identity even if he is known to be a doubtful citizen," said the official. He blamed the BSF for the unabated infiltration into Assam. The official complained that the BSF men have no sympathy to the cause of the state and anyone can enter or exit the Indo-Bangladesh border after bribing the BSF men. "Therefore, we submitted a proposal to the centre a few years back to jointly guard a number of selective sensitive areas which are the most favourite route of the infiltrators. Unfortunately, so far we have not received any communication from the centre in this regard," he said. Since 1952, around 4.25 lakh people have been detected as infiltrators, sources informed. Of these, 3.55 lakh people have been deported into Bangladesh after proof that they were illegal immigrants. However, during the period around 70,000 people have gone "underground" when the 'Quit India' notices were served on them. So far, no trace have been found of them, sources said. Between 1952-66 when the border was manned by Assam police, around 2 .5 lakh infiltrators were detected and around 2 lakh were deported. Between 1966-84 when the BSF took charge of the border, 1.5 lakh were detected and around 1.32 lakh deported. And since 1984, when the IMDT Act has come into effect, around 23,000 could be deported from Assam after identifying them as illegal immigrants. In May, around 280 illegal infiltrators were pushed back to Bangladesh, sources said. (Staff Reporter; The Northeast Daily; Guwahati; June 13, 2000)