Bangladeshi infiltration continues unabated: Tapan Sikdar

Kolkata, Mar 3 (UNI) Former Union Telecomunication Minister Tapan Sikdar today charged the West Bengal Government with being ''absolutely indifferent'' towards the problem of 'unabated infiltration' of Bangladeshi nationals into the state.

Speaking to newspersons about his plan to hold a mass Convention under the banner of Dr Shymaprasad Janajagaran Mancha next week here to highlight this problem, Mr Sikdar, also a former senior BJP leader who has been put under suspension for six years by the party, also blamed the state government for being allegedly responsible for a major demographic change in all the border districts of West Bengal during the past few years.

Quoting from government records, Mr Sikdar said when the state's overall population increased by 17.84 per cent between 1991 and 2001, those in bordering districts went up by over 25 per cent during the same period.

Moreover, he said, during the same period the state's minority population rose by 38.8 per cent, while the number of majority Hindus grew by about 21 per cent creating a severe demographic imbalance in several districts.

Continuing his tirade against the ruling Left Front, Mr Sikdar alleged that attempts had also been made to convert the large number of Bangladeshi infiltrators into a vote bank by the ruling coalition and called for a peoples' movement to oppose it tooth and nail.

He was also very critical about the role of Left parties in opposing census in the Indian armed forces and for its alleged failure in preventing the 'sky rocketting prices of essential commodities' under the present UPA rule.

Also charging the ruling Left Front with following a dual policy in terms of its industrial policy and the scope of employment generation in the state, Mr Sikdar said while on one hand it was blindly opposing disinvestment of central PSUs, on the other it was following the same policy in terms of state PSUs by handing them over to private partners.

To highlight all these wrong doings of the ruling parties and bring it before the public, the Manch had decided to hold a mass convention here on March eight which would be presided over by another former senior BJP leader K N Govindyacharya, Mr Sikdar said. A number of senior civil and military officials are likely to participate in the convention, he added.

He, however, refused to comment when askd about his future political move in the midst of a rumour that he might join the Congress after being offered a seat from Malda district during the coming polls.

''For me, I still belong to BJP,'' he said categorically.

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