By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Coordination Committee on Border Fencing (CCIB) has asked the Union Government to identify the Zero Line along the Indo Bangla border before working on the fencing of the Indo-Bangla border in the state.
CCIB spokesperson GH Kharshanlor said that people residing along the border are not aware about the disposition of the land.
“Till date there is no proper demarcation as far as land owned by India and Bangladesh is concerned,” Kharshanlor said.
It may be mentioned that the Central Government has fixed 2014 as deadline to complete the border fencing along the Indo Bangla border.
The CCIB leader also said his organization is not troubled by the deadline of the Government. The CCIB is opposed to the decision to construct the border fence 150 yards inside and away from the Zero Line as it wants the fencing to come up along the Zero Line to prevent loss of arable land. The NGO leader also believed that most of the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants enter the state through roadways and not through the porous border.
The 443 kilometer Indo-Bangla border in the state is manned by the Border Security Force (BSF).
The former IG of BSF Meghalaya frontier Sudesh Kumar recently told mediapersons that the fencing of the border would be an emboldened step to curb illegal immigrants from crossing over into India.
He also informed that the work is progressing along 50 kilometres of the border and that the Government is yet to acquire land for the remaining 88 kilometers, identified for fencing.