By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The outgoing Inspector General of BSF (Meghalaya Frontier), Sudesh Kumar has batted for early completion of fencing of the Indo-Bangla border to prevent entry of Bangladeshi migrants into the state.
Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday before his departure from Shillong, Kumar said the porous border continues to remain vulnerable to unabated illegal influx because of inadequate fencing.
While admitting that illegal influx, trans-border smuggling and movement of insurgents were major security threats to the country, the BSF official informed that one-third of the border was yet to be fenced.
He informed that the border fencing work was going on along 50 kilometers while land is also required to fence another 88 kilometers of the border.
The ministry of Home Affairs has set a 2014 deadline to complete fencing along the India-Bangladesh border. This was revealed in a report tabled by a parliamentary panel attached to the ministry during the last session of Parliament.
The local people in Meghalaya and some places in Assam and Tripura are opposing to fencing for various reasons and are not allowing the work to progress.
The Coordination Committee on International Border (CCIB), on the other hand has been protesting against the alignment of border fencing in Meghalaya sector stating that most of the lands owned by the indigenous people. It has also demanded for a fresh survey of the international boundary before carrying out the fencing work.