Rohingyas’ stay illegal: Rajnath

NEWDELHI: The Rohingya were not refugees but illegal immigrants who would be deported, home minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday, reinforcing the government’s tough stand on the minority community that has fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar.

Speaking at a seminar organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Singh said the Rohingya had entered India without following procedure and not one of them had applied for asylum.

“To get the refugee status, one needs to follow a certain process. None among them has followed that procedure,” Singh said.

The Modi government wants to deport tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees, almost all of them Muslims, for being a “serious security threat”.

More than 420,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since August when the Myanmar military launched a fresh crackdown in Rakhine state, where the United Nations has accused the force of ethnic cleansing.

The exodus has piled pressure on Myanmar’s de facto leader and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has faced criticism over her handling of violence and the refugee crisis.

There are around 40,000 Rohingya Muslims in India.

“Don’t mistake illegal immigrants for refugees. Any sovereign nation will act against illegal immigrants. The issue is also related to our national security,” the minister said as he addressed a seminar on good governance and human rights.

Earlier in the week, the government had raised security concerns, telling the Supreme Court that many Rohingya people had links with the Islamic State and Pakistan’s spy agency the ISI. The court is hearing a clutch of petitions against the government’s plan to deport the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship by Myanmar that labels them as illegal immigrants. In fact, the Myanmar government does not even use the term Rohingya, which it says is controversial.

On Thursday, the West Bengal child rights commission, too, knocked on the top court’s door. It said 44 Rohingya children were staying in correctional facilities and a shelter home in the state.

The entire community couldn’t be branded as terrorists and the proposed deportation of the children was against the Constitution, the plea said.

Singh, however, took a hard line on international rights groups and questioned why “some people” were objecting to the deportation of the Rohingya when Myanmar was ready to accept them.

“People who are beating trumpets that we are violating in-ternational law should know there is no violation. This reality needs to be understood,” he said.

India would not be violating international law in sending back the Rohingya as it was not a signatory to the UN refugee convention, 1951, the minister said.

The NHRC said it took up the issue of the Rohingya on humanitarian grounds but refused to comment on the minister’s remarks that “illegal immigrants” would be deported.

“We are taking up the case of Rohingyas on humanitarian grounds. I can’t comment on the government line,” NHRC chairman justice (retired) HL Dattu told mediapersons on a few minutes after Singh’s address. NEW DELHI: Pollution-plagued Delhi can finally heave a sigh of relief, now that the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and a few biomass power units have expressed their intent to purchase crop residue from farmers in surrounding states.

Agricultural stubble running into millions of tonnes is burnt by farmers in northern India every October, triggering heavy pollution in Delhi-ncr before the onset of winter.

As many as 35 million tonnes are burnt in Punjab and Haryana alone to make room for the winter crop. Lack of alternatives to immediately dispose of the stubble was the primary reason for farmers setting crop residue afire. The National Green Tribunal had banned the practice.

This move of the NTPC and a few other biomass power plants across Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab may bring some relief to the city of 12 million.

“Co-firing at power stations by using biomass with coal is one of the initiatives being pursued by the NTPC,” a senior official said.

While the stubble will help generate power, the by-product of the plant can be used as fertiliser because of its phosphorus-rich quality.

The issue was discussed at a meeting held by the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority [EPCA] – the Supreme Court-mandated body for curbing pollution in the NCR – earlier this week.

EPCA chairperson Bhure Lal said a few other companies also expressed their willingness to “harvest” agricultural stubble from the fields, and pay the farmers around Rs 1 to 2 per quintal for the same. “We are trying to organise a meeting between Punjab and Haryana officials, NTPC authorities and representatives of other companies willing to cut and buy crop residue from fields. It is likely to be held in Chandigarh,” said an EPCA member.

Burning a tonne of straw releases around 3 kg of particulate matter, 60 kg of carbon monoxide, 1,460 kg of carbon dioxide, 199 kg of ash and two kg of sulphur dioxide, causing severe air pollution and triggering a number of ailments.

The practice also depletes the soil’s nutrient levels.