Border fence pushes 82 families in GH to no man’s land

SHILLONG, Sep 5: The state government has moved the Ministry of Home Affairs to address the concerns of 82 families in Rongara-Siju constituency who are likely to be pushed to the Bangladesh side after the erection of the border fencing.
Informing this on Thursday, Cabinet minister and Rongara-Siju MLA, Rakkam Sangma, said the border fencing has pushed the 82 families into no man’s land since they are neither on the Indian side nor on the Bangladeshi side.
“We are moving the MHA for their re-location in Indian territory and we are waiting for the Ministry’s reply,” he said, while pointed out flaws in the border fencing work in his constituency which is not being done as per the norm.
“The border fence is to be construct 150 yards from the zero line but most of the fence is been erected between 150-500 meters inside Meghalaya, and in the process our land has gone away to Bangladesh,” Sangma said.
He said Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has been made aware of the situation and he is taking it up with the central government for a solution.
Asked about the situation in his constituency following the Bangladesh unrest, he said, “India and Bangladesh always shared a good relation but due to the unrest, trade activities have been affected. There is no issue on the Indian side but some issues still remain on the Bangladesh side.”
Earlier, this year, Deputy Chief Minister in charge Home  Prestone Tynsong had informed that the state government had already written a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs requesting the need to allow fencing to be constructed at zero line of the international border with Bangladesh.
Tynsong said the stand of the state government is very clear as there were some problems with the alignment of the fencing which sometimes goes beyond the agriculture land of the landowners, clan or community. Therefore, the village administration is opposing it and they keep requesting the Government of India to consider in such cases and in such a portion that fencing should be closer to the zero point.