Title: Illegal migration
from Bangla still on despite checks
Author: Manoj Anand
Publication: The Asian
Age
Date: April 14, 2000
The deployment of the
BSF and the fencing on western frontier of Assam, specially to check the
influx from Bangladesh, is totally ineffective with unabated flow of migrants
from across the border making a mockery of the process of checking the
infiltration.
This was disclosed when
The Asian Age managed to reach the frontier posts, pretending to be a contractor
because reporters are not allowed to visit the border without formal permission
of the BSF authorities.
The border fencing that
has been broken at the end of every foot-track across the fencing, indicating
the modus operandi of the smugglers and criminals who have a field day
along the international border of the state.
The migration from Bangladesh
that is still going on, has also started forcing the indigenous people
living in the Mankachar border area to migrate to other places without
selling their properties in the border area.Many such people who were compelled
to vacate the border villages have taken shelter at Gouripur and Dhubri.
One of such victim told
The Asian Age that his family could not sell off its property as nobody
was willing to buy the land, thus systematically coercing them to leave
the area. Mr Radha Dutta Choudhury, a resident of Gouripur village said
that the new settlers in and around their village are those who were compelled
to vacate their villages mostly in the Mankachar sector.
The locals discern a
planned conspiracy of the migrants to capture the properties of the indigenous
people in the border areas.
The volume of migration
from Bangladesh can also be estimated by the record of the border police
that deported more than 200 foreigners through Mankachar border during
last couple of years. The sources claim it is only the tip of the iceberg,
actual migration is much more than detected.
Interestingly, the Centre's
proposed second line of defence has yet to begin as out of 14 proposed,
only three border outposts are functional. This correspondent visited all
the three functional posts of the 'second line of defence' and discovered
that there is no coordination between the BSF and the border police.
The BSF men did not allow
border police to move through the border road without prior permission.
Once even the Mankachar police was denied the use of the border road to
apprehend an ISI agent and the ISI man managed to cross over the international
border before the police could cordon off the area with the formal permission
from the BSF authorities.
The ongoing migration
is not only threatening the demographic pattern of the western Assam's
Dhubri district. The holes in the fencing and tracks on the Bangladesh
side is proof enough that fencing is damaged with support of the BSF personnel
who claim to have been manning the border round the clock. Many such holes
were spotted near the BSF watch posts in the Mankachar sector.