We won’t set up detention camps, say chief ministers of Kerala, Bengal

NEW DELHI: The chief ministers of Kerala and West Bengal said on Friday that they won’t set up detention centres to house illegal immigrants in their respective states. The comments from the two non- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments come against the backdrop of a raging debate across the country over a proposed nationwide National Register of Citizen (NRC) in an attempt to deport illegal immigrants.

Stating that some people were trying to spread rumours about detention centres in the state, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said: “In 2012, the then Union government had sent a directive to build detention centres for illegal immigrants. In 2016, the social justice department director was assigned to oversee this. We haven’t seen any files on it after that,” he said.

In West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, chief minister Mamata Banerjee also said: “I am ready to give my life but I won’t allow BJP to set up detention camps.”

GOGOI ATTACKS PM

Senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi called Prime Minister Modi a “liar” for saying that there is no detention camp in the country and added that the Centre had sanctioned ~46 crore for one in Assam’s Goalpara district.

Gogoi said the Congress government in Assam he had headed had set up detention camps in the state as per a Gauhati high court order.

“Modi is a liar. In 2018, the Centre had sanctioned ~46 crore for constructing the largest detention centre in Goalpara district. Now he says there is no detention camp,” he said.