Guwahati: India is building its largest detention center in Matia region of Assam's Goalpara district, for people excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
According to reports, the construction of the detention centre in Matia will be completed within December 2019 and is expected to house around 3,000 people who have been rendered stateless.
The Center is being funded by the Union Home Ministry and is coming up at a cost of 46.5 Crore rupees. Assam has several detention centres and this largest detention Center is being constructed on 20 'Bighas' (28,800 sq ft or 2.5 Hectare) of Land at Matia, about 150 Km west of Guwahati.
The entire area is equivalent to about seven football fields. Also the Camp will reportedly consist of huge conference Hall, 180 Washrooms, 15 four Storied building, schools and hospital for those excluded from the NRC.
Some of the workers building the camp said that they were not on the citizenship list, which was released last week as part of a drive to detect 'illegal immigrants.'
The irony being that these workers could find themselves as a detainee in the same structure they help build!
Besides, there are, 1,136 detainees in the Six temporary detention Camps located in the District Jails of Kokrajhar, Goalpara, Jorhat, Tezpur, Dibrugarh and Silchar. Last Month, nine detainees, who completed 3 Years in detention, were released on bail as per Supreme Court guidelines.
Further, 25 other have reportedly died in detention due to health issues. Around 1.9m people in Assam were excluded from the state’s final National Register of Citizens (NRC) list which was published on August 31. Those excluded from the register will have to appeal to prove that they are citizens of India and for that they have given 120 Days to appeal it before the Foreigners Tribunal.
Persons left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will not be detained under any circumstances until foreigners tribunals (FTs) declare it. If the setting up of such tribunals nullifies the 120 day deadline provided, then the identity of many citizens remains in balance.
The detention centre is expected to house more in the coming months as the question on individual identity and statehood remains elusive for many.
Read: MHA finding it difficult to set up FTs due to unavailability of district wise NRC data
