Questioning the impact of securing only selected portions of the border, Sarma said, “If Siliguri is open and Mankachar is closed, then what is the meaning? These were historical mistakes.”
Assam CM Himanta Sarma flags ‘historical mistakes’ in India-Bangladesh border fencing, raises demographic concerns. (FILE PIC)
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has raised concerns over the delayed implementation of border fencing measures along the India-Bangladesh border, calling it a “historical mistake” that security efforts were not extended uniformly across all bordering states, including West Bengal.
Sarma said that while fencing work along the Assam-Bangladesh border began after the 1985 Assam Accord, similar attention was not given at the same time to other states sharing the international boundary.
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“Assam shares a 1,600-km border with Bangladesh. After signing the Assam Accord, we said that border fencing should be done along the Assam-Bangladesh border, and accordingly, the work was undertaken. But we did not think that fencing should be done in Meghalaya, Tripura and West Bengal as well. Our demand should have been for the entire 1,600 km border to be fenced,” Sarma said.
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Highlighting the situation in other states, the Assam Chief Minister said large stretches of the border remained open for years, creating challenges in controlling cross-border movement.
“Earlier, there was no fencing in Meghalaya. Now, 90 per cent of the work has been completed there. In Tripura, around 60 per cent of the fencing work has been completed, while work is also progressing in Mizoram. In West Bengal, where around 800 km of the border remained open, the fencing process has now been taken up,” he added.
Questioning the impact of securing only selected portions of the border, Sarma said, “If Siliguri is open and Mankachar is closed, then what is the meaning? These were historical mistakes.”
The Assam Chief Minister also referred to concerns over demographic changes in border regions and said the Union Government has constituted a committee to examine the issue.
“The Union Government has formed a committee on demographic changes. I think the government is going to undertake more effective measures in bordering areas concerning demographic changes. Our suggestion will be to conduct scrutiny of the citizenship status of every family residing in the bordering areas,” Sarma added.
Sarma said the implementation of border management measures under the Assam Accord gained momentum only recently.
“The actual implementation of the provisions of the 1985 Assam Accord has started from 2025. We were not able to stop the Bangladeshi movement earlier,” he said.
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