Bangladeshi migrants should have no voting rights: Ex-BSF DG

NEW DELHI: Illegal Bangladeshi migrants in India should "not be given" voting rights and powers to purchase immovable property in India, retired bureaucrat and pioneer of police reforms in the country Prakash Singh said here today.

Singh, along with other retired officers from the security establishment of the country, spoke during the release of a book 'Bangladeshi Migrants-A Threat to India' authored by former Additional Director General of BSF P K Mishra.

"Successive governments have swept the issue of Bangladeshi migrants under the carpet. The problem has not been tackled. There is a massive inflow of population in India from Bangladesh.

"You will have to recognise this hard fact and take some steps. One of the solutions is that such migrants should have no voting rights and they should not be allowed to have immovable properties in India," Singh, who retired as the chief of the Border Security Force some years ago, said after unveiling the book.

Singh said as the current Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh has been supportive of India in containing the insurgency in North Eastern states, India could take steps to make the neighbour "recognise" the problem in a well thought-out manner.

He also called the government's decision to provide non-lethal weapons to BSF troops on Indo-Bangla border as "very unfair" and "politically wrong".

"This is like ruining the ethos of BSF," he said. Another former Director General of BSF E N Rammohan said the government has "failed" to tackle the issue.

Mishra said there should be a "political will" to solve this issue.

Mishra has served for many years commanding BSF troops along the Indo-Bangla border.