Securing the Bangla border

Much water has flown down the Brahmaputra from Assam to Bangladesh since the signing of the Assam Accord in August 1985 that was supposed to bring curtains down on the vexed Bangladeshi influx issue by way. One of the most important provisions in the Assam Accord was – Detection of foreigners (read Bangladeshi infiltrators) who came to Assam on or after March 25, 1971, deletion of names of such people from Assam’s electoral rolls and expulsion of such people in accordance wih law. Clause 5.8 in fact specifically said, ‘Immediate and practical steps shall be taken to expel such foreigners.’ Likewise, Clause 9.1 among other things said – ‘The international border (meaning border with Bangladesh) shall be made secure against future infiltration by erection of physical barriers like walls, barbed wire fencing and other obstacles at appropriate places.’ Clause 9.2, on the other hand, provided for a road all along the border to facilitate patrolling by security forces, keeping the land between the road and the border free of human habitation, intensification of river patrol, and so on.

But, in reality, the approximately 4,096.7-km India-Bangladesh border that touches five states – West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram – have remained open and unprotected in most states. According to the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs for 2017-18, approximately 3006.48 km of the border has been already covered by physical barrier, and the remaining 1090 km would be covered by physical as well as non-physical barriers.These 1090 km was supposed to be completed by 2019 March-end, the MHA annual report had said.

It is very good that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday inaugurated the Border Electronically Dominated QRT Interception Technique – BOLD-QIT – project under the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System at Dhubri in western Assam. While he claimed that the India-Bangladesh border would be now completely sealed, he also blamed the previous governments of not doing anything to fulfill this long-pending demand of Assam. He said the NDA government had adopted such technology that would now ensure a ‘smart fencing’ along the border, and especially those difficult riverine portions – about 61 km – would be now manned by this technology of BOLD-QIT. This smart technology adopted by the Union Home Ministry, he said, was on the line of border manning system in Israel and the United States. It has been also said that the new technology would provide total surveillance of the border, be it trans-border smuggling or movement of intruders, and BSF jawans at the nearest border post would apprehend them within a few seconds. There would be different kinds of sensors in the unfenced riverine stretches of the boundary that run through the Brahmaputra and several of its tributaries which would provide real-time data to the BSF about any unwanted movement on the border. Now, with the deployment of the Border Electronically Dominated QRT Interception Technique – this is Stage I – one has to assume that 61 km of the border is now practically sealed. How effective the BOLT-QIT actually is, however, will be known only after entire 1000-plus km of the border comes under this smart mechanism. Better late than never.