Overview
- On Saturday Amit Shah chaired a review and directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to give full logistical and administrative support for the committee’s field visits to border districts, metropolitan cities and industrial towns.
- The five‑member body is chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar and includes the Census Commissioner, former IAS officer Durga Shankar Mishra, ex‑IPS officer Balaji Srivastava, economist Shamika Ravi and the MHA Joint Secretary as member secretary.
- The panel has statutory powers to seek records and data from central and state departments, may form sub‑groups with ministry approval, and must submit a final report within one year with a possible six‑month extension.
- Its mandate is to assess demographic changes the government says are not explained by fertility or mortality trends, examine community‑level shifts it links to illegal immigration and irregular mobility, and recommend legal, administrative and operational steps for identification, custody and deportation.
- The government frames the review as tied to sovereignty, security, service delivery and protection of tribal areas, but any measures the committee proposes would need executive action and likely new laws to be put into effect and could change how border states and migrants are treated.