In an aggressive tone, AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj said his party will not allow Rohingya migrants to settle in the national capital as they would become a threat to Delhiites in the future.
Further, taking a jibe at the Centre, Bhardwaj told the Centre to settle the Rohingyas in BJP-ruled states instead.
Bharadwaj condemned Puri's statement and said the rapid penetration of Rohingyas will jeopardize national security.
On Wednesday, Union Housing and Urban Affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri outlined new provisions for the Rohingya, signalling a potential change in the government's critical stance towards the refugee group from Myanmar. Rohingya refugees would be allotted flats in western Delhi's Bakkarwala area, providing basic amenities and round-the-clock police protection, Puri had said on Twitter.
However, later in the day, the Centre backtracked on support for Rohingya refugees. The Union Home Ministry said Rohingya refugees in the capital New Delhi would be held at a detention centre and then deported.
The AAP party has called the contradiction between the two ministries a 'hypocrisy'.
"With respect to news reports in certain sections of media regarding Rohingya illegal foreigners, it is clarified that the MHA has not given any directions to provide EWS flats to Rohingya illegal migrants at Bakkarwala in New Delhi," an MHA spokesperson said.
"Illegal foreigners are to be kept in the detention centre till their deportation as per law," the home ministry said in a statement.
"The Government of Delhi has not declared the present location as a detention centre. They have been directed to do the same immediately."
Rohingya is a minority community in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled from persecution and waves of violence in their homeland over the years, mainly to Bangladesh.
