SHILLONG, March 20: Initiated to prevent cross-border crimes, frequent crossing over of the nationals of the two countries, and other untoward activities, a major chunk of the fencing work along the international border with Bangladesh in Meghalaya has been completed, an official of the Border Security Force (BSF) said on Sunday.
Out of 444.857 km of the Indo-Bangladesh border, 337.869 km of the boundary has been fenced, while work on the rest of the 20.363 km is in progress, according to the official.
At present, land acquisition for construction of 42 km of fencing including the 37.25 km stretch in West Jaintia Hills, 4.910 km in East Khasi Hills and 0.35 km in South West Khasi Hills, is under way, the officials said.
It may be recalled that nearly 90 residents of Lyngkhong village located along the zero line on the Indo-Bangladesh border had expressed fear of their village being cut off from the rest of the country, as work on a border fence being built 150 yards inside the Indian border nears completion.
After this, the state government had instructed the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) and the East Khasi Hills district authorities to work on the possibility of pushing the border fence with Bangladesh towards the zero line to prevent Lyngkhong village from being cut off from the rest of the country.
As per international rules, the fence has to be built 150 yards inside the zero line separating India and Bangladesh. But the Border Guards Bangladesh agreed for the fence to come up nearer to the zero line in cases of habitations such as Lyngkhong.
It is learnt that the Bangladesh government has given “concurrence” to relaxing the norm in at least seven such locations along the border in Meghalaya and a proposal for Lyngkhong has been initiated too.
There are 13 such areas awaiting approval from Dhaka, which may require years of negotiations.