AGP MLA Pabindra Deka on Tuesday said that Assam is in no position to accommodate more foreigners. He added that Assam Accord has clearly mentioned the cut-off day of March 25, 1971 for detection and deportation of illegal immigrants.
Taking part in a debate in the ongoing Assembly on a ‘pending resolution’, which was moved in 2017 by Congress MLA Abdul Khaleque opposing amendment to the Assam Accord or 6th clause of the Accord, Deka said the historic Accord had been ratified by both Parliament and Assembly.
“Our stand is that there should not be any discrimination with regard to religion and language as far as the Assam Accord is concerned. Assam is in no position to take the burden of any more foreigners,” he said.
“The Accord has yet to be fully implemented. The first hindrance was the IM(DT) Act, which was subsequently scraped by the Supreme Court. Secondly, the nodal agency for implementation of the Accord is the Central government,” he said.
He regretted that the definition of who is an Assamese or an indigenous person of Assam has yet to be settled.
Deka said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, has been opposed by many sections of the society in Assam. He added that settlement of refugees from the then East Pakistan in the tribal belts of Assam in the post-Independence period drastically changed the demography of Assam.