High-level Committee set up by the Central Government to study demographic changes arising from illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons in different States/UTs will be undertaking a three-day visit to Jammu from August 10-12 during which it will tour border and other areas which have been hit by demographic changes.
This will be first visit of the Committee to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.Headed by Justice Prakash Prabhakar Navlekar (Retd), the Committee will be visiting different parts of the Jammu region for three days and will also interact with senior functionaries of the administration and the Government to take their assessment of the situation.
Besides Justice Navlekar, the Committee comprises the Census Commissioner, three distinguished experts -Durga Shankar Mishra (Retired IAS), Balaji Srivastava (Retired IPS), and Dr Shamika Ravi as the Members. The Joint Secretary (Foreigners-I), Ministry of Home Affairs, is Member Secretary of the Committee. The Committee will visit different parts of Jammu division including border areas and some other localities which have settlements of Rohingyas and most likely some Bangladeshis too to study the situation and their impact on demographic changes.
"The Committee is scheduled to meet top brass of the Government and the administration to take their view point on the demographic changes in parts of Jammu division,'' they said, adding as of now, the Panel has confined its visit to Jammu division and has no plans to visit the Valley.
The decision has been taken in view of the fact that charges of demographic changes have been reported only from the Jammu division and not Kashmir. In recent times Police has held groups of such people or individuals who have been illegally living in parts of J&K. Few days back police detained 21 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh including three women and seven minor children at Banihal in Ramban district on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway when they were heading towards the Kashmir Valley. They had no valid documents in their possession and were reported to have illegally infiltrated.
Earlier, the infiltration of Rohingyas from Myanmar was largely reported in the Jammu region while presence of Bangladeshis was negligible. However, this was new trend when 21 Bangladeshis were detained and they were planning to mix up in the Kashmir Valley.
The Committee will submit its report within one year. If necessary, the Ministry of Home Affairs may extend the tenure of the Committee by up to six months as it has to tour various States/UT affected by illegal immigrants including West Bengal, Assam, parts of North East etc. Some of them have also reached New Delhi and Mumbai in search of good livelihood.
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