Indo-Bangla border still a freeway for all

The border fence project was launched as a follow-up to the signing of the Assam Accord between the Government and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) after the latter ran a peaceful agitation for six years beginning 1979.

New Delhi — which during the initial years of the AASU-led agitation refused to believe there was any illegal infiltration from Bangladesh — today not only admits that the Indo-Bangla border is porous, but also states it has a lot do with insurgency and militant groups in the North-East.

‘‘The propaganda of the militants has been largely drawing its sustenance from the influx of illegal immigrants (mainly Bangladeshis), a perceived or actual demographic distortion of tribal communities in their homelands,’’ the Union Home Ministry report for 2001-2002 had said.

That illegal infiltration from Bangladesh has assumed alarming proportions was evident when the police arrested four ISI activists in Guwahati who had sneaked into the state through the Indo-Bangla border after arriving in Dhaka from Pakistan.

The border fence project has entered phase two, with the government estimating a sum of Rs 847 crore for the 2,429.5 km, the date for completion being fixed at 2007.

Work on construction of roads along the Indo-Bangla border too is progressing at a snail’s pace, with only 2,539 km against a total border length of 4,096 km having been completed so far.