Urgent efforts to erect fencing along Indo

Kolkatta : The Border Security Force (BSF) is taking immediate steps to erect fencing along the Indo – Bangladesh border that falls within West Bengal, in order to stop trespassing of the terrorists and trafficking. The BSF has submitted a detailed proposal to the West Bengal government. In the report, the BSF has also specified about how much land is required in the border area for the fencing.

The land measuring 81.7 kilometer adjacent to the Indo-Bangladesh border that falls within West Bengal, has been marked as highly sensitive. The BSF is making all-out efforts to seal this border area by erecting fences as soon as possible. To erect the fencing, the BSF requires land and it has submitted the statistics of their requirement to the West Bengal government, in a report presented to it.

Joint efforts are being made by India and Bangladesh for better security at the border. Currently, there is no fencing in some areas between the two countries. This has given an added advantage to the terrorists and the traffickers. Some areas at the border of the two countries are still not fenced due to geographical reasons and other difficulties. At such places, both the countries have decided to start joint patrolling to counter the terrorists and the traffickers. Meanwhile, a few days ago, India has announced setting up of 508 border outposts, whereas, Bangladesh will set up 50 more outposts along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Presently, like India, Bangladesh also is extremely concerned about the menace of terrorism. The BSF is making efforts to erect the fencing at the earliest, after receiving the reports from the intelligence agencies, about the terror attack on Dhaka and the misuse of the Indo-Bangladesh border by the terrorists. In fact, a survey was conducted in 2009 to erect the fencing along the border. But recently, the government of West Bengal demanded a complete detailed report about this.

Hence, a detailed report has been submitted to the Government of West Bengal. The proposal for required amount of land for fencing is placed in the report,informed the Inspector General of BSF (South Bengal Frontier) Sandeep Salunke. The information, regarding how much land will be required for erecting a 81.7 km fencing along the border line, passing through the districts of northern 24 Pargana, Nadiya and Murshidabad, also mentioned in the report. Out of the total Indo-Bangladesh border, a border of 2,216.7 km passes through West Bengal. Out of the 915 km border passing through Southern Bengal, only 371 km border is fenced. Of the remaining unfenced border, BSF has expressed the need to fence 81.7 km of the border immediately.

According to the inputs from the Border Security Force and the Home Ministry of the state, 67.38 kms in North 24 paraganas, 7.99 kms in Nadia and 6.41 kms in Murshidabad district need immediate fencing , because this area is turning into a safe haven for ‘Jamat-ul- Mujahideen Bangladesh’ (JMB). The international border that the North 24 Paragana shares with Bangladesh, is 241 km long and till July, around 50 Bangladeshi nationals have been arrested while trying to cross over at this location.

Meanwhile, The Chief Minister of West Bengal had instructed the Police and the District Administration to take concrete steps for preventing the cattle trafficking through the border. Besides, the border area also poses an added challenge to check drug trafficking, counterfeit currency, human trafficking and infiltration of terrorists