Will Send Back Illegal Foreigners Within 7 Days Of Tribunal Order: Assam CM

Guwahati: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said that his government has decided to push back to Bangladesh a person within seven days he is declared illegal foreigner by a foreigners tribunal (FT).

Informing that nearly 2,000 illegal foreigners have been pushed back across the international border with Bangladesh in the past few months under provisions of a 1950 law, the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam), Act (IEAA), the chief minister told reporters, “We have taken a decision that those declared foreigners by FT would be pushed back within seven days so that the process (of sending them back) don’t delayed with them appealing against the order in high court and Supreme Court.”

Asserting that there should be no doubt about BJP government returning to power in 2026 assembly polls, the chief minister made it clear that focus of BJP led government would be on both---protecting the identity of indigenous population of the state by evicting illegal encroachers from government lands, securing land rights for indigenous people and rapid development in infrastructure and investments to create jobs.

With assembly elections due in March-April this year the chief minister also announced that they would pay the four instalments ( Rs 1250 per month ) of its flagship Orunudoi scheme to nearly 3.8 million households in advance with one time Bihu festival incentives in one instalment of Rs. 8000 in February this year.

He argued, “Distributing money to beneficiaries under Orunodoi near elections is a contentious issue which sometimes the opposition also questions us. In order to avoid any such controversy, we will give each beneficiary an advance amount of Rs 8000 as lumpsum on February 20 as a gift for the coming (Bohag) Bihu (Assamese new year/festival).”

The chief minister clarified that beneficiaries under the scheme won’t get their monthly sum in January this year and the lumpsum amount would be given in February for both months and March and April. He said that though the amount for the four months total Rs 5,000, the state government would provide an extra sum of Rs 3,000 as ‘gift for Bihu’. From May, once the election process is over, they will routinely start getting Rs 1,250 every month.

The chief minister also announced that seven million ration card users who were getting 1kg each of lentil, sugar and salt each month at Rs 117 will now get the three items at Rs 100 only.

The chief minister said that his government is also going to introduce a financial incentives for graduate and post graduate students of families having their annual income below Rs 4 lakh.

While highlighting the government’s achievements, Mr Sarma termed the death of cultural icon Zubeen Garg under suspicious circumstances in Singapore in September and the mass outpouring of collective grief it witnesses as the saddest thing in 2025 and assured support for proper trial of the murder case.

“In order to ensure that timely justice is provided in the trial of the murder of Zubeen Garg, the state government has decided to appoint a special public prosecutor who will be aided by 3-4 senior advocates in the state. Once that special public prosecutor is appointed we will appeal to the Gauhati high court to create a special court to exclusively handle the trial of the Zubeen case,” said the chief minister who also asserted that their focus would be to register the presence of the state among the developed states of the country.

He also cited the report of Reserve Bank of India which has adjudged Assam as the fastest developing state of the country.