National

BJP unhappy over deportation of Bangladeshis

By Our Staff Reporter

BHUBANESWAR MAY 5. The Orissa unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has expressed displeasure over the deportation of Bangladeshi infiltrators by the State Government. Nearly 3,000 infiltrators have been identified in different districts and a batch of 21 has been deported.

The party's state executive committee passed a resolution at the end of a two-day meeting here today demanding that a high-level committee look into the issue before the Government went ahead with the deportation.

Observing that the Government was deporting Bangladeshi refugees treating them as infiltrators, the committee suggested that there should be proper identification of refugees and infiltrators living in the State. Briefing presspersons at the end of the meeting, the vice-president of the State unit, Anadi Charan Sahu, said the State Government had started the deportation in Nawrangpur and Malkangiri districts under pressure from parties opposed to the BJP. The 800-odd families who had been identified as illegal infiltrators were second generation refugees, he said.

Mr. Sahu alleged that the authorities had not initiated action against illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators who were running small business in different towns.

The Government started deporting the Bangladeshis from Nawrangpur even though it was opposed by several BJP Ministers in the State, Mr. Sahu said, while adding that the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, had been apprised of the issue.

The State Government had earlier said that infiltration posed a potential security threat and decided to deport the infiltrators in batches of 25 persons each. The deportation process will continue till all the infiltrators were sent back, the Home Secretary, T.K. Mishra, had said.

The Government had also clarified that the present deportation drive would not be restricted to Nawrangpur district. The next phase would be carried out in Malkangiri and Kendrapara districts. Mr. Sahu said his party was not satisfied with the performance of the coalition Government headed by Naveen Patnaik. However, the BJP was compromising on several issues and was making efforts to improve the Government's performance.

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