TURA, Feb 4: Social activist from Tura, Cherian Momin has submitted a memorandum to Union Home Minister Amit Shah urging him to take steps to strengthen border security as well as address the issue of illegal immigration in the state.
Momin in his memorandum raised the issue of unchecked influx of illegal immigrants and its socio-economic impact on the indigenous communities, the alarming rise in cross-border smuggling of cattle, narcotics, and essential commodities, inadequate fencing and surveillance along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya, the urgent need for functional and well-monitored entry and exit points with biometric verification and the necessity of implementing the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system in Meghalaya. Besides illegal immigration, Momin pointed out that many illegal activities were taking place in the state due to the porous Indo-Bangladesh border. Some of the illegal activities taking place due to the poor security at the border as per Momin included, cattle smuggling, illegal drugs and narcotics trade, human trafficking as well as smuggling of essential commodities.
In order to improve the overall security of the state, Momin suggested that steps be taken to complete the border fencing equipped with proper surveillance mechanisms, deployment of technological monitoring systems like drones, strengthening of the BSF, the implementation of the ILP besides others.
