PERMANENT DETENTION CENTRE FOR ‘DECLARED FOREIGNERS’
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The Assam government has failed to meet its earlier deadline of August 31, 2019 for construction of the first permanent detention centre for illegal foreigners in the State and the country as a whole. Dispur had informed of the August 31 deadline to the Supreme Court.
Sources informed The Sentinel that the State government has now set December 31, 2019 as the next date for completion of this permanent detention centre.
Following the project approval of MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs), the Government of Assam directed the Assam Police Housing Corporation Limited to carry out construction of the first full-fledged ‘permanent detention centre’ at Matia in Goalpara district. The construction cost of this detention centre is estimated at Rs 46.51 crore. Once completed, this centre — stretched across 15 bighas of land — will accommodate 3,000 detained ‘Declared Foreigners’.
Earlier, the State government had notified six district jails as ‘temporary detention centers’ for the detained illegal foreigners. Presently, more than 1000 such persons are kept in these detention centres that are being run from six district jails across the State. These temporary detention centres are at Goalpara, Silchar, Kokrajhar, Jorhat, Tezpur, and Dibrugarh.
The proposal for construction of a permanent detention centre was mooted on humanitarian ground so that the ‘stateless’ persons can be kept till a final decision on their status is taken by the authorities concerned.