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| Unfenced riverine areas lead to infiltration | | |
BL KAK
NEW DELHI, May 17
The Union government has issued a directive, urging the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel to seal the entry points along the Indo-Bangladesh border. This apart, States with their border with Bangladesh have also been asked by the Centre to render asisatance and cooperation to the BSF personnel and intelligence agencies in their "crucial" task of rendering ineffective Bangladeshi infiltrators into the Indian territory.
What is said to be the main hurdle is the unfenced riverine areas, continuing to serve as entry points for infiltrators from Bangladesh to sneak into the Indian territory. This "fact" finds due place in the Union Home Ministry's offical records in relation to the Indo-Bangladesh border.
According to official statistics, of the total 4096-km-long Indo-Bangladesh border, about 1116 km are riverine. Hence, all the more reason for the Home Ministry to call for more steps to seal the entry points through the river and canals along the Indo-Bangladesh border. And as the riverine areas continue to remain unfenced, the task of doing away with the menace of infiltration will also conti9nue to be difficult.
All that the government has put out at this stage is that riverine segments of the international border are being dominated by the BSF deploying boats and vessels. It is also official: Troops deployed on the Indo-Bangladesh border are maintaining surveillance over riverine areas by carrying out regular patrolling by boats and vesels.
BSF authorities have also deployed three floating BOPs (border observation posts) and provided four fast patrol crafts with each BOP to dominate the riverine areas in West Bengal. The government of India, despite louder protests and noises from Bangladesh, is said to be "determined" to fence the border between the two countries. But the work in this regard has not been completed so far.
Union Minister of State for Home, S Regupathy, has informed the Lok Sabha that the government sanctioned 3286. 859 km of fencing along the In do-Bangladesh border. Till March this year, 2495. 36 km of fencing has been erected. The fencing in problematic stretches could not be completed by March 2007 due to objection by BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) to construction of fencing within 150 yards from the international border, pending land acquisition cases and presence of habitation close to the international border.
On the other hand, Nepalese have reportedly encroached upon Indian territory. While there are differences between New Delhi and Kathmandu on the alignment of boundary in Susta region of west Champaran district of Bihar, the government of India is of the view that Nepalese have encroached upon Indian territory.
Survey departments of the two countries are engaged in an exercise to resolve the issue to reach a mutually acceptable alignment of the boundary in Susta region. Secondly, in order to manage India-Nepal border effectively, SSB (Sashtra Seema Bal) has been deployed as border guarding force.
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