[Reader-list] News Items posted on the net on Multipurpose National Identity Cards-34

[Taha Mehmood]

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050331/asp/northeast/story_4554083.asp

The Telegraph	
|  Thursday, March 31, 2005 |

Delhi skirts IMDT debate
- Court?s queries on migration barely answered
R. VENKATARAMAN

New Delhi, March 30: Delhi today informed the Supreme Court that ?four
data entry operators? had been assigned the task of computerising
citizenship records as part of the process of identifying and
deporting illegal migrants, provoking a caustic reaction from those
demanding the repeal of the allegedly ineffective Illegal Migrants
(Determination by Tribunals) Act.

The government was responding to the apex court?s directive to file an
affidavit on the subject of issuing multi-purpose national identity
cards, the creation of a national citizenship register and a former
Assam governor?s report on illegal migration.

?The government of India has agreed to provide funds for the purchase
of computers required for computerisation of the (national
citizenship) register,? Delhi stated in its affidavit.

But Manish Goswami, one of the lawyers arguing for abrogation of the
IMDT Act, was clearly not impressed. ?The way things are described in
this response, it might take 40 more years to even prepare the
register and identify the Bangladeshi illegal immigrants, by which
time the demography of Assam, West Bengal and even Delhi and
Maharashtra would have further changed because immigrants have
infiltrated all these areas,? he said.

Delhi touted the continuity of the process of fencing the border,
preparing a databank of citizens, strengthening the BSF, registering
countryboats and intensifying surveillance of the riverine sector of
the Indo-Bangladesh order as ?action taken? on the report compiled by
former governor Lt Gen. (retd) S.K. Sinha. The governor had warned of
catastrophic demographic changes in Assam if illegal migration
continued. The apex court will resume its hearing on the case
tomorrow.