Earlier on January 7, 2003, Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, during a conference of Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police in Delhi, observed that there were approximately 15 million Bangladeshis staying illegally in India, and that they posed a serious threat to the country's internal security. It was during this meeting that it was decided that the identification and deportation of foreigners staying in India illegally was to be assigned the highest priority. To facilitate the process, the meeting agreed that the Government would launch the Multi-purpose Identity Cards scheme as a pilot project in 13 States from April 1, 2003.
India's porous 4,095-kilometre border with Bangladesh is prone to large-scale illegal immigration, smuggling, drug trafficking, gun running and cross-filtration by terrorists. Unofficial estimates put the number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants even higher than the official figure, and there is clear evidence of the demographic destabilization of a large swathe of territory all along the Indo-Bangladesh border. One estimate assesses the illegal influx at about 300,000 persons per year.