6000 Rohingyas in Telangana, but India needs to care for its own first: Kishan Reddy

Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy on Thursday said that Telangana government had informed the Centre that there were 6,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees in the state.

Speaking to reporters in Hyderabad, Kishan Reddy, who was elected as an MP from Secunderabad, said that the Centre was yet to take a decision on implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Telangana.

“Hyderabad does not share any international border; so we have to see who brought them here in such large numbers from Myanmar and what is their motive. We have heard reports about their having obtained Aadhaar cards too and police cases were filed. We are securing reports from other states too about the Rohingya. It has nothing to do with religion but the fact is that we have to provide food and shelter to our own large population first,” Kishan Reddy told reporters.

This is in tune with Kishan Reddy's stand from earlier, as he had told reporters in August last year that, "The Bangladeshis or those from Burma (Myanmar) who are illegally coming, cannot be identified as refugees. Poverty is already there in the country, basic facilities are not available."

About 18,000 Rohingya refugees registered with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are living in India. Of them, 4,000 of them have found a home in Hyderabad in refugee camps in the city’s Balapur area.

About a million Rohingya Muslims are reported to have fled Myanmar to escape persecution by the armed forces there. Majority of them have taken refuge in Bangladesh.

Last month, even as it was reported that 19 lakh persons were left out of the final list of NRC in Assam, the Telangana BJP demanded that a similar initiative be undertaken in the state.