Assam: Four-kilometre area on Indo-Bangla border is open due to Bangladesh obstructions

The National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) started the barbed wire fencing in the border areas of the Kushiyara River that flows through Karimganj town in 2009, but it has not been able to complete it till today.

Guwahati (Assam): The non-implementation of the Assam Accord has resulted in the state facing the problem of immigrants from Bangladesh. Even today, the sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border is incomplete. The barbed wire fencing along the border has been almost completed in other areas but the four-kilometre stretch in the Karimganj district of Assam remains open.

The National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) started the barbed wire fencing in the border areas of the Kushiyara River that flows through Karimganj town in 2009. But it has not been able to complete it till today. The main reason for this is the inability of people settling on the banks of the river to be shifted to other places.

Financial assistance is provided to people to relocate to other places. However, the fencing of the four-kilometre area is still incomplete as people are settled in the same place. The barbed wire fences should be given at a distance of 150 yards from the border, but as several people were living on the banks of the Kushiyara River, the distance of fencing was reduced to 50 yards. India and Bangladesh governments took a decision in this regard. But despite that fencing the entire border has not been possible.

Officials also said that Bangladesh started stopping the NBCC from constructing a high guard wall on the banks of the river. Since the distance of the fencing of barbed wire was brought to 50 yards, it was not easy to fence the barbed wire without a guard wall. So the construction of a guard wall to the height and barbed wire fencing on it started in 2017.

According to officials, soon after this work started, restrictions were imposed by Bangladesh. Bangladesh objected to the construction of a high-pitched guard wall, fearing that the water would flow into Bangladesh during the Monsoon, they added. Officials said that Bangladesh wants the guard wall to be built at a lower height and barbed wire fences should be placed on it.