Biren bats for NRC with 1961 cut off year
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, April 08 2023: Chief minister N Biren Singh has said that the pressure being mounted on the Centre by different civil society organisations and the state government for updation/im-plementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) or similar mechanism in Manipur is to identify illegal immigrants, both legally and officially.

In an interview to national TV channel NDTV, Biren said that different civil society organisations have submitted memorandums to the Central government with the key demands centring on deportation of illegal immigrants to their native countries.

When asked whether the Centre has formally been proposed for NRC in Manipur, N Biren said that the state government has been conducting drives to identify illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar as these people need to be identified officially and legally.

In view of this, the state approached the Centre for the conduct of NRC or similar mechanism in Manipur, he said, adding that the state government had already constituted a population commission and is planning to conduct house-to-house survey to identify illegal immigrants in two phases under the provisions of the commission.

When asked about the duty of the commission amidst the preparation to conduct citizenship exercise in line with the NRC conducted in Assam some years back, CM Biren pointed out that more than 1.30 lakh additional bogus electors were detected in the electoral rolls of Manipur very recently.

Detection of more than 1.30 lakh additional bogus electors in the state having a population of around 30 lakhs people is due to manipulation and this indeed is very alarming.

In view of the emerging situation, the state government constituted population commission to identify immigrants and an Act in this regard was passed in the recently conducted state assembly session.

If this is done, real population of the state could be determined as also how many immigrants have entered the state illegally, Biren elaborated.

Amidst the preparations being made to conduct house-to-house survey to identify illegal immigrants, many Myanmarese nationals are entering Manipur due to the present restive situation in the neighbouring country and the state government is planning to construct detention/shelter homes for these refugees.

The house-to-house survey will be conducted based on 1961 census and outsiders detected during the survey will be categorised into two, indigenous and permanent settlers.

Those who have stayed in the state before 1961 will be termed as permanent settlers and they will be allowed to stay in the state while those who came after 1961 will not be considered as indigenous or permanent settlers, Biren affirmed, while adding that around 300 illegal immigrants from Myanmar and some from Bangladesh have been arrested so far.

According to CM Biren, the situation in Myanmar is worsening and the state government had already constituted two committees to look into influx from Myanmar.

Both the committees had already visited the areas where Myanmarese nationals are taking shelter and identified 3/4 places for construction of detention/ shelter homes.

Movement of these foreign nationals will be strictly monitored through biometric system and other mechanism and they will be deported once the situation in Myanmar returns to normalcy and peace prevails, Biren added.

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