/ 0
GUWAHATI DECLARATION ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
-By Dwaipayan Dasgupta
As one is aware of, Assam has long been faced with a host of age-old problems such as burgeoning unemployment, flood and erosion, illegal immigration from Bangladesh to mention a few. With the inordinate delay in resolving all the intractable issues afflicting the people in the State, peace that is considered to be the first condition to congenial atmosphere for a rapid economic growth, is still an elusive as before following periodic agitations by various home-grown leading social organizations such as All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the All Assam Kriskak Mukti Sagram Samity (AAKMSS) led by Akhil Gogoi, to press for an immediate solution to the complex problems.
However, of all these problems, the most complex of all times is undoubtedly the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh which is largely disturbing the social peace as they are decidedly posing serious threat to unity and integrity of the country as a whole. It has already been 32 years ever since the historic Assam Accord was signed at the end of the six years protracted movement against the suspected foreigners from Bangladesh between the leaders of both the AASU, the then AGSP and the then Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on the night of August 14-15, 1985. In accordance with the Accord, it was stipulated that after 25th March 1971, anyone who illegally enter Assam will be treated as foreigner. Therefore, it was almost taken for granted that during this prolonged period the detection and deportation of suspected foreigners would be undertaken. But it is a pity that the successive governments hardly did anything worth noting to resolve this problem.