NEW DELHI: After the Supreme Court scrapping the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, the Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday said the State Government would carry out the detection and deportation of foreign nationals under the provisions of the Foreigners Act as laid down in the apex court order.

As an immediate measure, the Chief Minister said, the number of tribunals under the Foreigners Act would be doubled to 32 to decide upon the pending cases expeditiously.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Gogoi said the Supreme Court verdict had created panic among the minorities who fear harassment in the name of detection of foreigners. Assuring protection to them, he said that genuine Indian citizens should not panic or apprehend any trouble as necessary protection would be granted to them.

He admitted that the detection and deportation of foreign nationals under the IMDT Act 1983 was very slow and the successive governments in Assam had failed on several counts while implementing it. Till date, he said, only 1,546 foreign nationals had been deported. As many as 4,41,842 enquiries were held of which 1,10,223 were referred to tribunals after scrutiny by the screening committee and 23,938 cases were disposed of.

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to spread communal disharmony, Mr. Gogoi said the State government was duty bound to maintain law and order, peace and tranquillity in the State. "We will not allow anybody to create communal disharmony. Our government will not tolerate such attempts by any political party who may try to derive political mileage out of the IMDT issue."

He said it was not the Congress alone which had supported the IMDT Act. The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) had implemented it while in power. "It was only when AGP joined hands with the BJP that it started making noises. Neither the BJP nor the AGP took any concrete measures to detect foreigners, mainly Bangladeshis, and stop further infiltration. He said the AGP-BJP did not hold tripartite talks with the Centre, the Assam Government and the All Assam Students Union (AASU) to stop infiltration. "We have already held [a] tripartite meeting and are taking effective measures to check infiltration at border also," he said.

Lauding the AASU for its measured, mature and responsible reaction to the Supreme Court verdict on the IMDT Act, Mr. Gogoi said that it was wrong to dub all sections of minorities as foreigners. Besides increasing the number of tribunals from the present 16 to 32 under the Foreigners Act, the State Government would also update the National Register of Citizens within next two years.

He said the GoM set up by the Centre to go into the vexed problem of infiltration would consider views of all political parties and groups before reaching a consensus on how to tackle the problem on several fronts. Mr. Gogoi also met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and the UPA chairperson and Congress president, Sonia Gandhi. He said the Government has decided not to file a review petition before the Supreme Court.

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