Governor for giving border fencing work to Army R Dutta Choudhury GUWAHATI, March 2 Assam Governor SC Mathur is of the view that the Army should be entrusted with the job of fencing the international border with Bangladesh to ensure timely completion of the job as was done in case of Jammu and Kashmir. Talking to The Assam Tribune at the Raj Bhawan here today, the Governor said that he recently met the Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram in New Delhi and requested him to explore the possibility of handing over the work of fencing the international border to the Army. He said that the Home Minister assured to consider his proposal.
Mathur admitted that the slow progress of fencing the international border is a matter of concern and the Centre is also concerned about the fact. He pointed out that there is no shortage of funds to complete the fencing but the problem is that different agencies are involved in the job and lack of coordination among the agencies slowed down the progress. The Union Home Minister, during the discussions, assured the Governor that the Centre would take positive steps to improve the coordination between the agencies involved in fencing the border to expedite the process so that the porous international border is fenced within a specific time frame.
The Governor admitted that infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals to India is a matter of concern, but on the positive side, the Home Minister recently announced that the Centre would establish more than 380 new border outposts of the BSF along the border with Bangladesh, which is a positive development. The Home Minister also told me that the Centre is making the regulations for issuing visa to Bangladeshi nationals to come to Assam and other parts of India more stringent. Lakhs of Bangladeshi nationals come to India with proper visa every year and a good number of them do not go back and settle down in India, which is a matter of serious concern. The new visa regulations should be able to prevent that practice to some extent, he added. The Governor also offered a series of other suggestions to the Centre for checking infiltration of foreign nationals, but he refused to divulge the same at this moment.
The Governor had earlier demanded setting up of a hub of the National Security Guards (NSG) in Assam to deal with terrorist attacks following the Mumbai terror attacks, but the Centre has announced that only four such hubs would be set up and the one for the eastern region would come up in Kolkata. Mathur said that though the Centre has not decided to establish a hub of the NSG in Assam, it was agreed that the Assam Police personnel would be trained up in the NSG hubs, which would be beneficial for the police personnel of Assam. He also pointed out that the Centre has signed a memorandum of understanding with the airliners to ensure prompt airlifting of NSG commandos and other security personnel to any part of the country whenever required, which, according to him, is a very positive step.
Commenting on the law and order situation, the Governor expressed the view that insurgency in Assam in on decline and more and more militants are coming forward to surrender with arms and ammunition. However, he said that the police and security forces must keep a close watch on the situation to prevent militant groups from bouncing back.
