Editor,
The recent incident of child kidnapping in broad daylight in Chandranagar is alarming and has vindicated the security concerns of the various indigenous organisations and the general public of Arunachal Pradesh.
The Itanagar Capital Region has been witnessing continuous influx from various regions. A large percentage of them are most likely living without proper proof of nationalities and other essential documents despite standing restrictions. Such unscrupulous elements pose a serious threat to our society. Over the years, the migrants have outnumbered the indigenous people in the ICR and other major district headquarters.
Thousands of individuals without proper identities are freely roaming in the state capital. Effects of their rapidly growing population are now visible. Going by this trend, more complications cannot be ruled out in the near future. A vast majority of the indigenous tribals are still unaware of these dangerous elements. So, more awareness campaigns/protective steps are necessary. The tendency of the innocent tribals to readily believe or indiscriminately accommodate the unknown people carries huge risk.
Mizoram, one of the most developed states of India, is known for its invariably sincere execution of the BEFR along with other defensive mechanisms. Even the fellow tribals of the neighbouring states are not exempted from temporary ILP at the airport for entry in Mizoram. But here in Arunachal, persons without valid documents don’t find much difficulty while crossing the check posts. It seems like the time has come for revamping and strengthening of the security at these points, whereby nabbing and timely deportation of the infiltrators can be realised. Better if verifications are regularly conducted within the cities and towns across the state, so that all defaulters can be identified.
In the absence of a foolproof system, they can easily escape after committing crimes. Anyone who brings the outsiders in violation of norms should be held equally accountable in the event of crimes committed by the illegal dwellers.
Further it’s worth mentioning that the violations of traffic rules and instances of reckless driving, apart from other unruly activities are also rampant among the floating population. Until and unless some elaborate, consistent steps are taken by the authorities in tandem with the civil societies, recurrence or escalation of crimes might remain a matter of major concern.
K Riba,
Naharlagun