Cops don’t keep track of illegal immigrants

The city police and revenue departments have no mechanism to identify illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan in the city.
The foreigners’ branch and Pakistan cell in the Special Branch of the city police deal only with legal immigrants who come to them for registration.
The police acts against illegal immigrants only based on specific information or inputs.
It is suspected that thousands of Bangladeshis are illegally residing in the city and have obtained ration cards, passports and driving licences. They may get registered in the on-going Census and get unique ID cards too.
The BJP leader, Mr N.V.S. Prabhakar, alleged that around one lakh Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals are staying illegally in the state and are trying to enrol as Indian citizens during the ongoing Census.
“The government should appoint an IAS officer to supervise this and ensure that no foreigner enlists as an Indian citizen,” he said.
An official of city police disputed the figure. “How did the BJP leader arrive at this figure?” he asked.
“It is true that they are in good numbers and are staying illegally after sneaking in from the porous Bangladeshi borders,” he said.
“To identify them is a difficult task as they mingled with the locals.”
He stressed that the police acts when it is informed of the presence of illegals.
The Task Force last year arrested up to 40 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. In a single case around 25 Bangladeshi illegals were arrested after the August 25, 2008, twin blasts. Last week, the court ordered expulsion of a brother-sister pair of Bangladeshi illegals who were found during investigations into the blasts.