Fencing along Bangladesh border to be completed

SILCHAR: The barbed wire fencing of the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam will be completed by December 31, Assam Accord Implementation Minister Bhumidhar Barman has said.

The construction of roads and the wire fence along the frontier will be completed by the year-end, Barman told here onMonday night after visiting border areas in Cachar and Karimganj districts.

Authorities in Karimganj district, which has a 94-km border with Bangladesh, including 41 km that is riverine, told Barman that they were facing problems in completing a four-kilometre stretch inside Karimganj town.

The fence has to be built 150 metres from the frontier but that would not be possible in the four-kilometre stretch unless the district deputy commissioner's office and some other important buildings were pulled down, the authorities told the minister.

As the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) were objecting to the construction of the fence there without maintaining the norm of placing it 150 metres from the border, the Assam government has referred the matter to the Centre, Barman said.

Of the 28.75-km border in Cachar district, 14 km had been fenced. Roads had been constructed in 26 km.

Referring to objections raised by the BSF against madrasas in the border areas, Barman said the government had no specific allegation but action would be taken if any complaint was lodged.