Tribunals Have Identified Over 1 Lakh Foreigners on Assam Soil till March 31 2019: Chandramohan Patowary

Guwahati, July 30, 2019:

Assam parliamentary affairs minister Chandra Mohan Patwary said that foreigner tribunals have identified altogether 1, 17,164 foreigners till March 31 this year, ahead of the publication of the final draft NRC (which has been delayed till August 31).

Answering to a question of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) legislator Ramendra Narayan Kalita, Patwary in a written reply stated since 1985 till June 30 2019, around 29,855 foreigners had been expelled.

The minister informed that from 2005-06 to 2018-19 around Rs 168.02 Crore were spent for foreigner tribunals to identify foreigners on Assamese soil. Rs 1,243.53 crore has been spent so far for NRC work.

Patowary has also said that a total of 832.67 sq km of Assam’s land has been encroached by its neighbouring states with Nagaland occupying the largest area of 594.90 sq km till February, the state Assembly was told on Monday.

Arunachal Pradesh encroached 213.43 sq km, Meghalaya 14.83 sq km, Mizoram 9.26 sq km followed by Tripura 0.25 sq km, said Border Protection and Development Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary replying to a question by Debabrata Saikia of the Congress.

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