india

Updated: Oct 03, 2019 19:54 IST

Karnataka home minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Thursday that his department was collecting information on immigrants in the state and will proceed on working toward Assam-like National Register of Citizens (NRC) after a discussion with the central government.

“There is a talk on the implementation of NRC across India. We are one of the states where people across the border have come and settled down. We are collecting information and will discuss with Union home ministry and go ahead,” Bommai said.

The minister’s statement of Thursday was a reiteration of a similar remark he made in Haveri district on Wednesday, where he said two meetings had already been held on the issue.

“Especially in Bengaluru and other cities, people have come from other states and countries in large numbers. Some of them have even been involved in criminal activities, this has come to our notice. We will soon take a decision on this, we will take a decision this week,” Bommai had said in Haveri.

His comments on the citizenship screening exercise come after Union home minister Amit Shah’s repeated call for a nationwide NRC. Several other party leaders from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Tripura have also demanded the exercise across the country.

The final NRC for Assam, published on August 31, had excluded 1.9 million of the 33 million applicants. Many political parties and groups have denounced the list saying it has included names of illegal immigrants while indigenous people have been left out.

However, Karnataka law minister JC Madhuswamy said the topic had not come up during a Cabinet meeting on the day. “No such file has come before the department. We will take a call when it is brought before the department,” he said.

The move came in for criticism from the Congress, whose state working president Eshwar Khandre said there was no need for the move. “There is no need for this. If there are illegal immigrants, the police and authorities can take action locally. NRC is a huge exercise that requires a lot of money and can also create fear among minority communities,” he said. “Injustice could even be meted out to people born in this land. So, I believe it is completely unncessary,” he added.

Demands for dealing with illegal immigrants in Karnataka are not new. The BJP’s Mahadevapura MLA Arvind Limbavali has for long claimed that there are many illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the city. A slum, where migrants from West Bengal reside, was also set to be demolished, but was eventually stayed by the Karnataka High Court last year.

A detention centre is currently being built on the state capital’s outskirts. It was sanctioned during the reign of the previous Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government. Limbavali’s demands, too, precede the central government’s move to introduce the NRC.