Sarbananda Sonowal: Bangladesh border infrastructure not satisfactory

Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who visited the Indo-Bangla international border, said on Sunday that border-guarding infrastructure along the Indo-Bangla frontier was not at all satisfactory and needs to be strengthened to check the influx in Assam.

After completing his two-day-long border visit with various stakeholders and all-party MLAs, Mr Sonowal said that around 60 km of riverine international border and the char areas located along the border are completely open and it is easy for infiltrators and smugglers to cross over to India. Pointing out that the condition of the existing fencing along the border is very poor, the CM, who recently announced a handover of the supervision of the border fencing work to the Army, stressed the need of using new technologies to seal the border.

Mr Sonowal visited the border with a delegation of the All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) and legislators from his own party, the Congress, AGP and AIUDF. Senior police officers, including the director-general of police Mukesh Sahay, special DGP, law and order Kula Saikia, special DGP (border) R.M. Singh, senior officers of the BSF and others also accompanied him during the visit.

Aasu president Dipanka Kumar Nath, who was also a part of the delegation, told reporters that the riverine international border is totally open and supported the chief minister’s decision to construct the fencing under the supervision of the Army.

He also regretted that even after 31-years of signing of the Assam Accord, the international border remains open. Narrating his experience, Mr Nath said that during the visit to Hatir Char they saw a totally open border and in fact, Bangladeshi nationals came over to talk to them.

He said that as many as 32 such chars exist in the area, which have no fencing to check infiltration. The people of the area also told the delegation that cattle smuggling is rampant and more than 32,000 cattle heads were seized by the BSF so far this year.

The people of the area complained before the delegation that the BSF hands over the seized cattle to the custom department but smugglers who had nexus with them often buy them back.