Only five km Bangla border fenced in 06?
By a Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, March 4: Fencing along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Asom sector
seems to be abysmally slow although it is an admitted fact that the
international border with Bangladesh is marked by high degree of porosity,
thereby making the efforts to check illegal cross-border activities a
challenging task.
The main problem is illegal migration into India from Bangladesh, sources in
the Ministry of Home Affairs said quoting its annual document for the year
2005-2006.
According to the latest information, about a 65-km stretch along the
Asom-Bangladesh border is yet to be fenced. The unfenced stretch along the
international border in Asom was about 70 km in early 2006, the MHA data said.
That means that only 5 km border fencing was done in 2006.
According to the data provided by Asom Revenue and Assam Accord Implementation
Minister Dr Bhumidhar Barman in the floor of the State Assembly last week,
150.607 km of the 267.30-km Asom-Bangladesh border has been fenced so far by
the Assam Public Works Department, one of the seven agencies all over the
country that have been entrusted by the Centre to complete the fencing work
along the 3,286-km-long Indo-Bangladesh border.
The minister said that the fencing work was in progress in another stretch of
26.358 km border, which was targeted to be completed by March, while the work
in the remaining 37.909 km was yet to start.
However, the MHAs annual report last year said that barring the
400-km-stretch along Indo-Bangla border in Mizoram, the entire border fencing
project was expected to be completed by the fiscal 2006-2007.
Another cause of concern along the Indo-Bangladesh border is its riverine
stretch measuring about 107 km. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in
his annual report three years back, had expressed his concern over the
unsealed part of the riverine border. With the riverine stretch of the border
left unfenced, the primary objective of fighting illegal migration stands
defeated, he said.
However, there is no river police to guard the riverine border in Asom, said
the minister. According to him, it is only the river wing of the BSF that
covers the area.
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