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Illegal migration from Bangla still on despite checks

Illegal migration from Bangla still on despite checks

Manoj Anand
The Asian Age
April 14, 2000
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.
 



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