States Collecting Biometric Data of Rohingya Refugees, Will Send It to Myanmar: Rajnath Singh

Kolkata: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Monday said the state governments have been asked to identify Rohingya refugees in their regions and collect their biometric details.

The Centre will send the biometric reports collected by states to the Myanmar government through diplomatic channel for the resolution of the issue, he said.

"We have already issued a concerned advisory on this issue. The states have been asked to identify them and collect their biometrics," Singh told reporters here after the meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council.

The Union Home minister chaired the 23rd meeting of the Council to discuss issues related to inter-state relations and security matters, including the Maoist menace.

The meeting was attended by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik sent their representatives to the meeting.

While Bihar was represented by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi the Odisha Finance Minister Shashi Bhusan Behera participated from his state.

Senior officials of the respective states and the union home ministry were also present at the meeting.

Acknowledging the states' need of central forces, Singh said the Centre would provide central forces to the states as per their requirement.

"I admit that states need central forces. But the Centre has some compulsions. When states start having elections we have to provide central forces to the maximum number pertaining to the demand of election commission by withdrawing them from somewhere," the Union Home minister said.

On whether the central government would review its decision to withdraw some CRPF companies from the naxal-affected districts of West Bengal and re-deploy them to Left-wing extremist affected area of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand besides the insurgency-hit Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said the Centre was taking appropriate measures to counter Maoism as well as terrorism.

"The government is taking appropriate measures to address security threats like Maoism, extremism and terrorism. We are also working out and will continue taking such measures to plough out other challenges," he said.