Home Minister G Parameshwara in reply to a question raised by Sunil Kumar V (BJP) said there were 748 Bangaladeshi's in the state out of which 283 are illegally here as per Foreigners Act, 1946.
To detect illegal migrants, special task force had been constituted at district and city levels, and local police asked to maintain a vigil and find out about such migrants in their respective jurisdictional area, he said.
Rejecting these numbers, Kumar said it looks like government was trying to protect illegal migrants.
Asking government to consider this issue as a matter of internal security as most of them were involved in "anti social activities", he said it should take action against them.
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Noting that the state government is in no way supporting illegal Bangladeshi migrants, the Home Minister also said to stop this problem, "We have to protect our borders with Bangladesh and the central government should be doing it."
He said the government was also checking coffee plantations in Chikkamagaluru and Kodagu districts where the reports suggest a large number of illegal Bangladeshi migrants have been employed as contract labours.
Intervening, Opposition BJP Leader Jagadish Shettar questioned as to why those identified as illegal migrants were not being deported and added they were thousands in numbers in the state.
In reply, Parameshwara said the state government considers illegal Bangladeshi migrants issue as a matter of internal security and is not taking it lightly.
"We are with utmost seriousness checking about their presence in the state. Whatever their number may be, we will deport them," he said.
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