Guwahati: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that the demographic data of people along the India-Myanmar border, especially in Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur, should be mapped so that it can help in fencing the border and infiltration can be stopped. He said that for this, there is a need to conduct a comprehensive survey in the border areas.
The Home Minister said this on Saturday while addressing the 12th meeting of the North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) Society in Agartala, Tripura.
The Home Minister's statement came at a time when the north-east states including Nagaland and Mizoram have been opposing the border fencing project. The Mizoram legislative assembly had earlier this year unanimously adopted a resolution to oppose the border fencing and urged the Centre to reconsider the decision.
The Nagaland assembly had also adopted a resolution to oppose the border fencing between India and Myanmar. Both the Nagaland and Mizoram have also urged the Centre government to reconsider its decision to fence the border and to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between the two countries.
The opposition to the border fencing and scraping of FMR came as the dominant Mizos of Mizoram, the Kuki-Zomis of Manipur, the Chins of Myanmar and the Kuki-Chins of Bangladesh belong to the Zo ethnic group.
It may be mentioned here that the length of the Indo-Myanmar border is 1643 km, which is spread over four North Eastern states — Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.
Shah said that the NESAC Society should focus on forest area development using space science.
He said that for this, necessary steps should be taken by comparing old maps with the latest maps and where there are possibilities, efforts should be made to plant trees in collaboration with the state governments.
Similarly, the Home Minister also asked the Society to map floods in the North-Eastern states. Union Home Minister lauded the efforts of NESAC Society for the proper and positive use of space technology in administration and emphasized its extensive use in the development of a difficult geographical area like the Northeast in the coming times. Shri Shah also said that the NESAC Society should also focus on developing its revenue model.
