Centre, Assam govt discuss sealing of Indo-Bangla border to check illegal immigration

Sealing of the Indo-Bangla border, early completion of the National Register of Citizens and a host of other issues were discussed at a high-level meeting between the Centre and the Assam government.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Union Home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and others reviewed the progress of fencing work along the Indo-Bangla border to check illegal immigration, official sources said.

They discussed threadbare all the clauses of the Assam Accord and in particular clauses 6 and 7 pertaining to the constitutional safeguards to indigenous people and economic safeguards.

The process of the NRC updation exercise to weed out the names of illegal immigrants were also reviewed, the sources said.

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The Chief Minister said he has been monitoring the progress regularly and has held around 40 meetings in this regard.

The meeting was held ahead of Wednesday's tripartite talks between Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the Chief Minister and representatives of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU).

In a separate meeting, between Sonowal and the AASU, it was decided to urge the Home Minister to completely seal the porous Indo-Bangla border and complete fencing work on a war footing.

The Chief Minister pointed out that both the governments at the state and the Centre are committed towards sealing of the border, including riverine areas, to prevent the influx of illegal immigrants once and for all.

The meeting was attended by state minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, media adviser to chief minister Hrishikesh Goswami besides others.

The AASU was represented by adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya, president Dipanka Nath, general secretary Lorinjyoti Gogoi and educationist Basanta Deka.

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