The Maharashtra Home Ministry has reportedly identified land in Navi Mumbai's Nerul area for the state's first detention centre for illegal immigrants.
According to NDTV, Maharashtra Home Ministry has reportedly written to the Navi Mumbai planning authority asking for land on which to build a detention centre for illegal immigrants. The home department last week reportedly wrote to the City and Industrial Development Corporation, which is the planning authority for Navi Mumbai, and sought a two-to-three-acre plot in Nerul for the detention centre.
The move came less than a fortnight after NRC in Assam was released on August 31. It declared 19 lakh people as foreigners leaving them vulnerable to end up in detention centres. The exercise led to the prediction that NRC process could happen in other states of the country too. The ministry has denied sending any such letter, however, according to guidelines issued by the Centre earlier this year, all major immigration points in the country are required to build detention centres.
Shiv Sena Mumbai South MP Arvind Sawant told news agency ANI last week, "NRC was needed in Assam to solve the problems of the original inhabitants of the region. That is why we supported the NRC move... want a similar exercise to be held in Mumbai to drive out the Bangladeshis living here."
The Bharatiya Janata Party manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections had said the government would identify “illegal immigrants” and “infiltrators” from every “inch” of the country and that “they will be deported in accordance to prevailing international laws”. In July, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also told the Rajya Sabha that his government will ensure that all illegal immigrants are identified and deported.
