Assam govt jumbles with number of foreigners in state

The Assam government on Monday gave two different figures in the state Assembly on the number of foreigners detected in the state. The issue was pointed out by BJP MLA Numal Momin as Point of Order immediately after the Question Hour and he urged the Speaker to take strict action against the "callous officials".

Giving a reply for the starred question number 36, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said a total of 1,03,764 persons were declared as foreigners from 1985 to August 2018. This question was raised by the ruling party MLA Binanda Kumar Saikia and was taken up for discussion during the Question Hour.

In a separate query, which was unstarred question number 57, by Momin, Patowary gave a different figure and said 94,425 foreigners were detected from 1985 to August 2018. In both the cases, Patowary was replying on behalf of the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who also holds the Home and Implementation of Assam Accord departments. Responding to the blooper, Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami assured the House to look into the matter.

(With inputs from agencies.)