It is govt’s resolve to remove every illegal immigrant: Amit Shah

Gandhinagar: Union home minister Amit Shah said in Gandhinagar on Thursday that the govt has resolved to remove every illegal immigrant from the country. He said that the high-level committee on demographic changes (HLCDC), constituted earlier this week to study ‘unnatural demographic changes’, will submit its report within a year.

Speaking at Sonipur, Gandhinagar district, Shah said, “It is the resolve of our govt to remove every illegal immigrant. For this purpose, PM Modi has constituted the committee, which will study the circumstances behind unnatural demographic changes, and suggest solutions, including whether there is a need for a legal framework to do away with illegal immigrants.”

Regarding the recent West Bengal election, Shah said, “Didi was wiped out.” He said that during the election campaign, the BJP told people that if the party was voted to power, the Bangladesh border would be fenced. “I want to congratulate Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari. Within seven days (of assuming office), he handed over 600 hectares of land to the BSF for fencing the Indo-Bangladesh border. The state govt also handed over 121 hectares of ‘Chicken’s Neck’ land to the Union govt,” Shah said.

The ‘Chicken’s Neck’ refers to the Siliguri Corridor, a narrow stretch of land in northern West Bengal. Roughly 60 kilometres long and 20 kilometres wide at its thinnest point, it is the sole terrestrial route connecting eight northeastern states and the rest of the country.

Shah said that during Mamata Banerjee’s tenure as CM, infiltration occurred every day, but now infiltrators are returning voluntarily. “Today, newspapers are saying that illegal immigrants are returning voluntarily. The West Bengal govt has set up detention centres, but we all wish that those who entered illegally would return voluntarily. If they return voluntarily, then the state govt will not file any cases against them; it will instead assist them in returning,” the Union minister said. “I am hopeful that before the campaign to identify infiltrators begins, a large number of such people will leave,” Shah pointed out.

Shah said that over the past 12 years, PM Modi has replicated Gujarat’s development model across the country, and today the BJP is in power in 80% of the country’s geographical area.

“From Gangotri in Uttarakhand to Gangasagar in West Bengal, the BJP holds sway in the entire belt from where the Ganga flows,” he commented.

Paying glowing tributes to Veer Savarkar on his birth anniversary, Shah said that Savarkar was a patriot who did not require any recognition by the govt. “Nobody addresses him as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar; everybody refers to him as Veer Savarkar. He is the only freedom fighter who was handed 120 years’ imprisonment by the British, and his passion for freedom was instrumental in India’s independence,” Shah said.

Shah laid the foundation stones for development projects worth Rs 340 crore in the Kalol and Gandhinagar (North) assembly constituencies of Gandhinagar. He said that every village must become self-sufficient and that every citizen must enjoy the right to a comfortable life. “By 2029, every village in both the assembly constituencies of the Gandhinagar LS constituency will have facilities such as a lake, a garden and a library,” the Union home minister, who represents the Gandhinagar LS constituency, said.