Guwahati, Nov. 21: A Supreme Court-appointed committee investigating illegal migration in Assam has said there is "an established institutional mechanism" which enables a Bangladeshi national to allegedly enter the country and acquire citizenship and voting rights.

The committee, in its final report submitted to the court on November 4, said that its fact-finding investigation since May has revealed presence of an institutional mechanism that enables foreigners to acquire fake certificates for Indian citizenship. A copy of the report was made available to The Telegraph today.

"The fact that it is a porous border (admitted by both the governments), no verification of any person being enrolled as a voter, no verification of any person getting rights over land, rather settling as an encroacher upon government land, forest land and grazing reserves and subsequently conferred land rights, with procurement of fake certification being the norm. As noted by Gauhati High Court, even when such fake certification is detected with great difficulty, no offender who participated in this process is brought to book," the report submitted by senior Supreme Court lawyer Upamanyu Hazarika said.

Hazarika was appointed commissioner of the committee during the hearing of petitions seeking the court's intervention in solving Assam's problem of illegal migration and the government's failure to fence the international border. He had filed three reports earlier.

Citing a judgment in Gauhati High Court relating to a person who was declared a Bangladeshi national and deported to the neighbouring country and how he came back to challenge the order in high court but the judgment remained pending for six years owing to the Assam government's failure to submit an affidavit, the report said such incidents demonstrated the "confidence" of Bangladeshi nationals to establish themselves illegally in India.

The committee, in its earlier reports had made 11 major recommendations, including institution of an independent inquiry on how Bangladeshi nationals entered the state and acquired fake documents for Indian citizenship. But the state government, in its response on October 14, had shifted the responsibility in 10 of the 11 recommendations to the Centre.

Creating a sterile zone near the border and providing identity cards to those living near the border, examining electoral rolls for unnatural increase and growth in population, increasing ground staff, relocating villagers living close to the border, plugging vulnerable patches and uninterrupted power supply to floodlights were some of the recommendations.

The affidavit said the government had asked the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited to take measures to improve electricity supply for floodlights.

"On setting up of an independent inquiry/investigation into the manner in which illegal migrants entrench themselves in the state, including unearthing of nexuses in this connection the response is a simple 'No comment'. Considering the factual data in terms of overall demographic change furnished in the earlier reports, this response is surprising," the report said.