Guwahati, February 21 Asserting that if India can eliminate Naxalism, it can also eliminate infiltrators, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday that illegal immigrants would be removed not only from the electoral rolls but also from the country within the next five years.
Shah was addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone for a new campus of the Assam Police 10th Battalion, which he said would be constructed on land freed from encroachment by infiltrators.
Attacking Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Shah said that the Congress leader had once stated that infiltrators would be removed, but "the Congress cannot do so because illegal immigrants are its voter base."
"It is not enough to simply evict infiltrators from encroached land; they must also be sent out of India," he said.
Shah said that Assam would become the industrial hub of eastern and northeastern India within the next five years.
Elections to the 126-member Assam Assembly are expected to be held in March-April.