By IANS,
Ahmedabad: Rising illegal immigration from neighbouring Bangladesh is posing the biggest threat to India’s national security, Minister of State for Home Sriparakash Jaiswal said Tuesday.
“The Indian government is already working towards introducing the multi-purpose national identity card for every citizen and would ensure that all the citizens possess a card within a span of the next four years,” he said at the valedictory function of a two-day international conference on security and identity management-2009, organised by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad here.
The minister said that the central government has earmarked Rs.100 crore (Rs.1 billion) for developing a unique identity number for every citizen to be incorporated in the national identity card.
A great opportunity will emerge during the 2011 national population census where a comprehensive database of the citizens would be available to the government for prepring the national identity cards, Jaiswal said.
Later talking to reporters, Jaiswal said that Pakistan could not be termed as the focal point of cross-border terrorism as there was internal strife taking place in other neighbourhood countries such as Bangladesh and Myanmar.
“We cannot pinpoint a single country and blame it as a hub for terrorists. There are problems surrounding India on all sides,” he said.
On the reported growing influence of China in Nepal, Jaiswal said: “Nepal has assured India it would take measures so that India’s security is not jeopardised by any of the internal strife in Nepal or the reported Chinese influence growing in the country.”