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Nagpur News:
The issue of foreign immigrants moving into Nagpur borders has been raised for longer period of time but this time it’s gone a little serious as the High Court has stepped up for the issue. Before admitting a public interest litigation filed by a group of people, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has issued notices to Central Home and Foreign secretaries along with Nagpur Commissioner of Police in this regard. The litigation argued that hordes of foreign nationals, including Pakistanis, overstaying in India pose a grave danger to the country’s security.
In Nagpur alone, 2,013 Pakistanis have been staying beyond the visa validity period, the petitioners said. Of the 2,546 Pak nationals staying in the city on long-period visas, 533 have also been granted residency.
The HC bench comprising Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Atul Chandurkar has sought replies from the respondents before September 23.
Petitioners Ajaz Khan Noor Khan, Uttaresh Wasnik and four others have, on the basis an information sought under the Right To Information Act, collected from all over India, claimed that thousands of Pakistan and Bangladesh nationals had been staying in India after expiry of their visas and there was no concrete information available with local authorities.
The petitioners also sought information from the Indian Embassy in Islamabad about the Pakistani nationals to whom visas were issued since 1960. The Embassy informed them that more than 5 lakh people were issued visas since 2006 but as the visa records were junked after five years, no information from as far back as 1960 could be provided.
The petitioners claimed that many of these nationals had been granted residency in states like Uttar Pradesh as well as cities such as Nagpur.
In Hyderabad, at least 13 Pakistani nationals that arrived between 2008 and 2012 were untraceable while 17 were still staying back, the petition claimed.
