SHILLONG, Nov 26 ? India and Bangladesh have agreed to carry out a joint survey along the international border in Assam and Meghalaya, BSF Inspector General S C Srivastava said today, reports PTI. Addressing a press conference here on the occasion of its 39th Raising day, Srivastava said the survey would be carried out by the Survey of India and Bangladesh Survey from December to March next year.
The survey, he said, would be done in those areas where the boundary pillars are found missing, broken or washed away by rivers. The authorities had maps and equipment to determine the exact position of those pillars, he said. The BSF IG said so far 289.963 km of the international border had been fenced and work was in progress in 130.518 km of the total sanctioned 478.560 km area of the Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland frontier.
However, he said there was problem of erecting fence along the riverine border as a result of frequent washing away of the fence due to soil erosion. Besides guarding the border, 20 companies of the BSF have been deployed in various districts of Assam since October 8 last to assist the civil authorities in maintaining law and order situation, he said. The BSF IG said after the deployment of BSF in Assam, explosion of IEDs and killing of innocent civilians had been reduced to a large extent.
?Unlike the Dhemaji incident on August 15 and several bomb blasts on October 2 and 3, the situation had now changed a bit?, he said. Several underground cadres had surrendered in the recent past and ?now the government is waiting for peace talks with the National Democratic Front Of Bodoland (NDFB) and United Liberation Front Of Asom (ULFA) for which an effort is on?, Srivastava said.
The situation in Manipur had also improved to a great extent after the deployment of BSF, Srivastava said adding that the public outcry and demonstration on Manorama Devi issue and demand for withdrawal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act had calmed down.
During 2004, three DG-level coordination meetings between the BSF and BDR were held in New Delhi and Dhaka and one IG BSF and DDG BDR level border coordination meeting was held in Bangladesh. In the course of the meetings, the BDR had agreed to cooperate for preventing trans-border crimes and solving various issues confronting both the border guarding forces as also to maintain peace and tranquility along the border, Srivastava added.