Over Rs 1,100 crore spent on fencing border with Bangladesh

A total amount of Rs 1,138.48 crore have been spent for the fencing along the international border between India and Bangladesh in the last five years. The entire length of the international border is 4096.70 km and the fence that has been sanctioned stands at a total length of 3326.14 km. The probable date for completion of the fence is December 2020.

According to the Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, the schemes for creation of border infrastructure work on the border, like fence, road, floodlight and BOPs are in progress. The border guarding forces conduct regular patrolling, lay nakas and establish observation posts and carry out anti tunnelling exercise to stop illegal infiltration.

However, illegal migrants are able to enter in a clandestine and surreptitious manner, mainly due to difficult riverine terrain in parts of the international border with Bangladesh which are not amenable to physical fencing, according to Rai.

As such, the accurate number of infiltrators is not available. However, the number of infiltrators who were apprehended along the border during the last five years has drastically reduced. The states that share a border with Bangladesh are--West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura. 

In the last five years, the number of infiltrators apprehended in West Bengal has been reduced to 379 from 2260, in Assam it has come down to 6 from 22, in Meghalaya it stands at 11 from 64, in Mizoram it has been lowered to seven from eight, and in Tripura it has decreased to 94 from 101.