Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Second line of defence on border yet to take off

Guwahati, Aug 6 : It is now a well established fact that the process of detection and deportation of foreigners from Assam has been turning into a farce and what is more unfortunate is that the Government lacks the initiative even to seal the Assam-Bangladesh border to prevent fresh infiltration of foreigners into the State as the proposed second line of defence is yet to become fully functional. The material provided by the Border Police wing of Assam police in response to questions under the Right to Information Act (RTI) by The Assam Tribune clearly exposed the lack of proper initiative on the part of the Government in sealing the international border to prevent fresh infiltration of foreigners into Assam.

A decision was taken in a tripartite meeting held between the Central and State Governments and All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on March 18, 1999 to create a second line of defence behind the Border Security Force (BSF) to check infiltrators who might sneak past the BSF posts. But unfortunately, the second line of defence is yet to become fully operational because of the failure of the Government to sanction required posts and to provide the basic infrastructure even after nine years of taking the decision to create the same.It was decided in the meeting that 28 border outposts (BOPs) and three tactical headquarters of the second line of defence would be created behind the BOPs of the BSF in the districts of Dhubri, Cachar and Karimganj having international border with Bangladesh. It was also decided that one thousand personnel from the existing forces would be deployed temporarily to the BOPs of the second line of defence by thinning out personnel from the posts already sanctioned in other districts till regular posts are sanctioned.

However, unfortunately, till date, only 12 BOPs and two tactical headquarters of the second line of defence became functional in temporary accommodation and without required logistic support. Proper accommodation in the BOPs is still not available and a proposal for construction of 28 BOPs and three tactical headquarters is pending with the Government. Moreover, the Government is yet to sanction a thousand posts for the second line of defence and the present strength of the force is only 23 sub-inspectors, 19 head constables and 55 constables. Border Police admitted that the second line of defence would become fully operational only when infrastructure, logistic support and one thousand personnel are made available by the Government.

It may be mentioned here that the Border Police force, now being headed by an officer of the rank of Director General of Police, has a sanctioned strength of 4002 personnel. The main tasks assigned to the force include, detection and deportation of illegal migrants, prevention of infiltration of foreigners by maintaining a second line of defence, joint patrolling along the international border with the BSF, maintenance of law and order in the international border areas etc. The personnel of the force are deployed in 159 watch posts in 17 districts of the State.

There are six immigrant check posts in the districts of Dhubri and Karimganj to check people coming with valid documents and a proposal has been submitted to the Government in 2006 to strengthen and upgrade the posts. The border police personnel have also started joint patrolling along the international border in the districts of Dhubri and Karimganj along with the BSF personnel.

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