BackGovt orders sealing of Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam by June 2017
In the run-up to the Assam assembly election, BJP promised to seal the border in the state to check illegal immigration from the neighbouring country
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New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Thursday ordered complete sealing of Assam’s border with Bangladesh by June 2017, fulfilling an electoral pledge of the Bharatiya Janata Party within a week of assuming power in Assam to check illegal immigration from the neighbouring country.
Home minister Rajnath Singh issued the order at a high-level meeting attended by top home ministry officials. During the meeting, Singh directed that the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam should be sealed completely, a home ministry official said.
In the run-up to the recent Assam assembly elections, BJP had promised to seal the Indo-Bangladesh border in the state completely to check illegal immigration from the neighbouring country.
Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has said that sealing of the borders with Bangladesh in two years is one of his two top priorities. The home minister also directed that full use of technological solutions be made to secure sensitive areas along the borders.
This will involve networking of equipment such as high-resolution cameras, radars, unattended ground sensors, optical fibres, infrared sensors, etc.
The total length of the Indo-Bangladesh border is 4,096km of which 284km falls in Assam. The meeting was told that besides deployment of adequate number of battalions of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Assam, a 224km-long fence has been constructed for sealing of Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam.
However, there are 122 locations (60.7km) in Assam where physical barrier is not present. In order to achieve the objective of sealing the border in Assam, it was decided that 100 locations covering 11.9km will have physical barrier i.e. fence and 22 locations covering 48.8km of riverine areas will have non-physical barriers including technological barriers which will be achieved by June 2017, the official said.
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