SHILLONG: The contentious issue of fencing of the Indo-Bangla international border in Meghalaya is still hanging fire with land owners and pressure groups unrelenting in their demand for border fencing from the Zero Line due to which over 100 kilometers of the porous border has still remained unfenced.
BSF Meghalaya Frontier IG Sudesh Kumar informed that out of the 443 kilometers of the Indo-Bangla border in Meghalaya, 350 kilometers have been fenced while around 80 kilometers of the border could not be fenced in Khasi and Jaintia Hills due to land acquisition hurdles.
According to the BSF official, another stretch of 18-19 kilometers of the border which passes through forest land has remained unfenced pending necessary clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest.
The land owners and pressure groups are opposed to the Centre’s decision to construct the border fence 150 yards inside the Zero Line in the Indian territory since they want the fencing to come up right along the Zero Line to prevent loss of arable land.
The BSF has urged the State Government to expedite the land acquisition process for early commencement of the fencing work in the remaining stretch of the border.
It may be mentioned that the State Chief Secretary had recently convened a meeting with the district magistrates of the border districts and had asked them to speed up the land acquisition process.
Earlier, the Centre had expressed concern over people’s unwillingness to provide land to fence the border saying, “Otherwise free flow of arms and ammunition to the State from across the border will continue”.
