11 Bangladeshi immigrants arrested in Meghalaya

[Kesang]

11 Bangla immigrants arrested in Meghalaya


SHILLONG, Oct 26 (IANS): Border Security Force (BSF) troopers arrested 11 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who were workingas coal miners in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district, a BSF official said Friday.
The Bangladeshi nationals were arrested late Thursday night from Kuliang and Umkiang villages near the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya while they were attempting to cross over to Bangladesh, BSF spokesman Ravi Gandhi said.
With Thursday's arrests, the number of illegal Bangladesh immigrants arrested by the BSF has gone up to 92 this month alone

The troopers also seized Rs.30,420, five mobile phones with four Indian and one Bangladesh SIM cards, and garments from the Bangladeshi nationals, Gandhi said.
During preliminary questioning, the immigrants said they were working as coal miners near Khlierihat area.
Meghalaya shares a 443-km border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, hilly, unfenced and prone to frequent infiltration.
A government official said that the main factors responsible for influx of Bangladeshinationals to Meghalaya are high demand forcheap labour in coal mining areas, manual jobs, and porous borders and poor security along the boundary.


"We cannot deny that there are illegal Bangladeshi nationals working in the coal mines across Meghalaya and they (Bangladeshi nationals) are engaged in mining activities since the local tribesmen don't enter the coal pits," the official told IANS on condition of anonymity.
Each miner gets paid on an hourly basis or for the number of coal filled trays they are able to scrap. Typically, in a day an experienced miner gets about Rs.300-Rs.500.
The coal is extracted by primitive surface mining method called "rat-hole" mining thatentails clearing ground vegetation and digging pits ranging from five to 100 square metres to reach the coal seams.
Workers and children go deep into these holes and extract the coal using traditional tools. Makeshift bamboo ladders take miners down into the pits to chip away through two-feet-high tunnels.
Meghalaya has a total coal reserve of 640 million tonnes. The coal is high in sulphur content and is mostly of sub-bituminous type

The Assam Tribune Online

 

[Kesang]

Protest meeting against illegal migrants
Correspondent
GAURIPUR, Oct 25 – Under the joint auspices of Dhubri district unit of AASU and the Asam Jatiyatabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad,a protest meeting for expulsion of post- 1971 Bangladeshi nationals was held in the conference hall of Dhubri Branch Sahitya Sabha recently.
The protest meeting was chaired by Jagadish Chandra Roy, president of the district AASU. Participating in the meeting asappointed speaker, Prof GN Goswami, retired principal of BN College, Dhubri and a senior journalist lambasted both the State and the Central Govt for their failure to detect and deport the post-1971 Bangladeshi nationals. He also opined that for the purpose of deportation of detected foreigners to Bangladesh, a treaty should besigned between the countries within a short period of time so that Bangladesh be compelled to accept their citizens.
The meeting was addressed by Giasuddin Ahmed, president of Dhubri Zila Sahitya Sabha, Bijoy Sharma, president of Dhubri Press Club, Ahid Khan, secretary of Dhubri Branch Sahitya Sabha, social activist Prabir Kumar Baruah, Biswajit Kalita, Sukumar Barua, Udayan Chakra-borty, AN Alfarooque and a few others. The speakers, in their speeches emphasised the update of NRC and detection and deportation of the illegal foreigners irrespective of caste and creeds.
The meeting also decided to drive out the illegal Bangladeshi nationals unitedly to safeguard the identity and the culture of thegreater Assamese society and the indigenous people of the State as a whole. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks from the chair.

The Assam Tribune Online

 

[Tshering22]

They'd probably free by the local secularist politician for votes.

Until we get our political structure right, all this is just a drama.

But at least they did something. Something's better than nothing.