Shillong, May 1: The BSF has sought the help of border residents to provide land to fence 42 km unfenced border with Bangladesh.
In an interaction with media persons on Thursday at the BSF headquarters at Umpling, the Inspector General (IG), Border Security Force (BSF) OP Upadhyay appealed to the villagers to handover their lands for construction of the border fencing to ensure security.
Upadhyay said, “Around 42 kilometers of border in Meghalaya is unfenced primarily, it is because of the non-availability of the land.”
“We are working in close coordination with the state government and the officers of the state government and the chief minister, they are concerned about this issue and they are proactively working on that. I am hopeful that the impediments in this regard will be very soon removed,” he said.
The official said the deputy commissioners are also working on this issue and they are also trying to persuade the villagers, whose land is going to be affected. The villagers have some concerns that after the fencing, the land ahead of the fence will not be available to them.
“So, my approach is that we are ready to help all the border population, people of the border areas in whatever sense they will require our assistance be it in the form of security and patrols, be it in the form of the gates in the fencing, we are ready for that. I also appeal through the media to the people of the bordering districts that they should cooperate and handover the lands to the constructing agency as this is a project of national importance. It has bearing on the national security and as soon as we get the area fence this will be better for the security of the state, the security of the nation as well as the security of the border population. We are hopeful that we are able to remove the impediments.”
Replying to a question, the IG said that as per data, smuggling is very much under control and it is reducing.
“In the past during the election time, there were concerns about the smuggling but at the moment, there is down trend is visible primarily because of the alertness of the BSF, coordination and cooperation of the state police and other agencies,” he said.
