Bhubaneswar, May 19 (PTI) Odisha Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan on Monday said the government has already started the process of identifying Bangladeshis staying illegally in different districts of the state.
The government has issued a direction to all district collectors, coastal security agencies and formed a Special Task Force (STF) to coordinate the process of identifying the undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants in the state.
"We have already started the process of identifying illegal migrants staying in both urban and rural areas. No foreign national residing without valid legal status will be allowed to stay in Odisha. Different engineering departments of the state government have been asked not to engage any Bangladesh or foreign national without valid documents. The government has taken a strong stance in this regard," Harichandan told reporters here.
STF DIG Pinak Mishra said, "We have intensified patrolling and tightened coastal security as there is a possibility of an influx of foreigners, including Bangladesh nationals, through the water route. The state has about 500 km of coastline. Odisha also shares inter-state boundary with West Bengal, which has international borders with Bangladesh. Therefore, we are watchful."
He said that community policing is also being stressed for any indication of foreigner influx into the state, Mishra said.
In April, Odisha's Panchayati Raj Minister Rabi Narayan Naik and Food Supplies Minister KC Patra had said that the state would identify all foreign nationals staying in the state illegally.
Naik had said that illegal settlers are being identified at the gram panchayat level. Patra said the government has decided to deny ration cards availed by such persons in a fraudulent manner.
Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate of Police on Sunday held a meeting of officers-in-charge of all police stations and discussed the issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants staying in the twin cities.
Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena instructed all police stations to gather detailed data on undocumented foreigners, particularly Bangladesh nationals, and take appropriate legal action.
He also asked the police to investigate how the illegal settlers entered Bhubaneswar and to monitor their activities.
Police sources said that the Special Task Force (STF) of the Crime Branch has arrested 10 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, including six men, three women and a juvenile, from Bhubaneswar railway station in March.
The STF has located a large number of such illegal settlers in the districts of Khurda, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Ganjam and Puri, they said.
The illegal settlers are engaged in construction work, scrap collection, and street vending, they added.
In March this year, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, while replying to a question in the assembly, said that the police have registered criminal cases against 41 Bangladeshis in the state in the last 10 years.
He said a total of 3,738 Bangladeshi infiltrators were identified in the state earlier. The highest number of 1,649 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants was found in Kendrapara, followed by 1,112 in Jagatsinghpur, 655 in Malkangiri, 199 in Bhadrak, 106 in Nabarangpur and 17 in Bhubaneswar.