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NDTV Correspondent Monday, May 19, 2008 (New Delhi) Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has told NDTV that the Centre asked her government to round up all Bangladeshis staying illegally in the state and put them in a transit camp.

Speaking to Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of Indian Express in Walk The Talk programme Raje said her government has been writing to the Centre since June 2006 about the problem of illegal Bangladeshi migrants, and this was the suggestion the Union Home Ministry made in formal written replies.

With investigators suspecting the role of Bangladesh based militant group HuJI in the Jaipur serial blasts, Bangladeshis staying illegally in Rajasthan have come under the scanner.

Many of them have been held for questioning.

Excerpts of the interview:

Vasundhara Raje: I will give you an example on the deportation and of the Bangladeshi national residents finding ways to Rajasthan.

We have written letters to them (Centre) many times. We wrote to them in June 2007 saying we need to do something about this. We got a reply back from them: ”Why don’t you collect them and put them into a transit camp somewhere.

Shekhar Gupta: You mean collect all Bangladeshis and put them into a transit camp, did they write to you?

Raje:: Yes.

Shekhar Gupta: That you can set up your own Guantanamo Bay?

Raje:: Something like that but it’s much more serious than that.

Shekhar Gupta: How can you - so many thousand people?

Raje:: Yes this is the question I am asking.

Shekhar Gupta: The home ministry has formally written to you that if you think there are illegal Bangladeshis you round them up and put them in a transit camp?

Raje:: Kindly round them up, put them in a transit camp and pay for it. Yes.

Shekhar Gupta: And you feed them there, and what happens after you have them in a transit camp?

Raje:: We have no idea because we have been going on with this since June 2006.

You can watch the full interview with Vasundhara Raje on Walk The Talk on Saturday at 9:30 pm on NDTV 24×7.

May 19th, 2008 | Category: Bangladesh, Detainee |  Print This Post | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL