Deport illegal Bangladeshi immigrants

BHUBANESWAR: The Bharat Rakhya Manch, an apolitical organisation, urged the State Government to launch a special drive to identify the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and take necessary measures for their repatriation.In a memorandum to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Manch national secretary Anil Dhir expressed concern over the increasing infiltration of Bangladeshis and the State Government’s lack of concern to the problem.Alleging that the infiltrators are mostly engaged in illegal trades like counterfeit currency circulation, cattle smuggling, scrap trade, poaching of endangered species, human trafficking, drugs and  highway robberies, the Manch said the crime records of the coastal districts bear testimony to this.All the five marine police stations are defunct in the absence of trained manpower and other infrastructures, including speed boat.According to a BRM study, there is a daily influx of around 500 Bangladeshi citizens into the State and the population of these illegal immigrants in the state capital is more than 50,000. Major construction sites in the city have Bangladeshis working as skilled and unskilled workers, the memorandum said.  While the Centre and the State have turned a blind eye to the problem, Dhir said  the demographic profiles of many areas  have undergone major changes due to large-scale infiltration of Bangladeshis.The illegal immigrants are not only a security threat but have already started wreaking havoc to the economy.The State has become the hopping point for illegal immigrants who enter the porous coastal villages and many places in Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts. The Bangladeshis have outnumbered the local population in many of the coastal villages.The Manch requested the Chief Minister to instruct all the police stations to identify the Bangladeshi infiltrators and take measures for their deportation.