BHUBANESHWAR, JAN 22: Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Monday urged the central government to provide adequate funds for fencing the state's entire border with Bangladesh to check the growing activities of the extremists operating from across the border as well as entry of infiltrators from the neighbouring country.``The 856-km border between Tripura and Bangladesh is the longest international border the country has and it is completely porous,'' he told newsmen here.Sarkar, who is here to attend the four-day politburo and central committee meeting of CPI-M Here, said the tough and hostile terrains of the border were ideally suited to the extremists for freely going out and coming into the state.About Rs. 1000 crore was needed to fence the entire border and the Centre should take up the job in a phased manner, he said adding the state government had already identified some pockets to be taken up for fencing in the first instance.Stating that two banned extremist outfits-National Liberation Front of Tripura and All Tripura Tribal Force-had their hideouts in Bangladesh, Sarkar said his government had already given a list of 31 such hideouts to the Centre. ``The Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee should take up the matter with his counterpart in Bangladesh and ensure that they would not allow their territory to be used to create problem in Tripura.''The Chief Minister said during the past three years, about one lakh illegal infiltrators had been pushed back across the border. However, he could not say the exact number of such infiltrators still staying in his state.
