GUWAHATI: The Centre has sanctioned construction of a standalone detention camp, the first of its kind in Assam , to keep people declared non-nationals by various foreigners’ tribunals in the state.

Principal secretary (home and political) LS Changsan told TOI, “We have received the Centre’s go-ahead. We had sent a proposal in this regard about two years ago.”

The proposed detention centre will be built at Matia in Goalpara district, 146 km west of Guwahati. It will house about 3,000 people and will be built at a cost of Rs 46 crore.

At the moment, six jails — Goalpara, Kokrajhar , Tezpur, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Silchar — are used as camps to detain people declared illegal migrants by foreigners’ tribunals in the state, which is awaiting publication of the final draft of the updated National Register of Citizens ( NRC ) on July 30.

Changsan said, “The new camp will have facilities such as living quarters for its inmates. Its capacity can be increased later.” She made it clear that construction of the proposed camp had nothing to do with the NRC because it would house only those declared non-nationals by foreigners’ tribunals. Currently, the state has about 90,000 declared non-nationals.

