PM: Expedite Bangladesh border fencing

Giving top priority to the completion of India-Bangladesh border fencing work, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya — the five states which share frontiers with that country — to expedite the process at the earliest, keeping national security in mind. In a review meeting conducted by Mr Modi on Wednesday with chief secretaries of the aforementioned north-eastern states, he made it clear that the completion of fencing work of India-Bangladesh border is an issue of national security on which there can be no compromise, sources aware of the development told this newspaper.

The five north-eastern states on their part are said to have highlighted to the Prime Minister the problem of land acquisition, which they said is a major impediment in the early completion of the task, sources added.

Around 90 per cent of the fencing work is said to have been completed, however sources pointed out that delay in acquisition of land in many parts of the five states and also protests by local inhabitants in some of these areas has delayed the completion of the work.

The Prime Minister while expressing his concern on the matter, is learnt to have directed the chief secretaries to take up these issues at their level and ensure that the entire process is completed without any further delay. Apart from this, interacting with top bureaucrats of various ministries, Mr Modi also sought updates on the progress of infrastructure projects in the highway, railway, power, coal and airport sectors spread over several states.

As reported by this newspaper last week, the PMO had expressed its dismay on the fact that around 600 odd big infrastructure projects are either running behind schedule or don’t even have a particular date of completion.

In the light of this fact, during Wednesday’s meeting, the PM is said to have indicated to the concerned ministries that they should try and remove all the bottlenecks which are holding back the projects at their level.

Meanwhile Mr Modi also reviewed the progress of Aadhar card enrolment and asked all Chief Secretaries to work towards providing benefits through the mechanisms of Jan Dhan Accounts and Aadhaar cards, to the extent possible, so that leakages are reduced, and people are benefited.