After Basaiawmoit, now BSF demands legalization of trade

CATTLE SMUGGLING

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG, March 12: The Inspector General, Border Security Force (IG, BSF), Meghalaya Frontier, PK Dubey, on Saturday said it has proposed to the centre to legalise cattle trade.

Dubey said that legalising the trade is one of the solutions to solve the problem of cattle smuggling.

“This decision has to be taken by the Ministries of Fince and Commerce. That is the only solution,” the IG, BSF said.

He also informed that due to pressure from the BSF in Assam’s, Dhubri district, has led to spilling over to the Meghalaya area. 

The IG, BSF also said that earlier, the BSF and the state police worked in close coordition to prevent cattle smuggling.

“Perhaps the police have stopped checking. We request the state to check at the Assam border itself to prevent the cattle from being transported into Meghalaya,” Dubey said.

It may be mentioned that smuggling has increased going by the number of seized cattle. The BSF informed that in 2014 around 500 cattle were seized which rose to 2056 cattle in 2015.

In order to curb cattle smuggling, the BSF has also mooted to mobilize their intelligence network by working closely with the villagers, put up cameras along the cattle route to record the movement of smugglers and also to have a list of the mes of smugglers and file FIR against them.

Dubey also informed that about 12 km along the intertiol border in the state is not “feasible” for fencing due to rough terrain even as he said that technology would be used to fill the gaps.

According to Dubey there are about 108 gaps in these 12 km due to rivers and nullahs (drains).

Dubey also pointed out that in Khasi and Jaintia Hills area, about 90 km border is yet to be fenced, due to land acquisition problem.

The IG, BSG said that the matter has been taken up with the state government for early solution and hoped that BSF will get the land   for fencing in another three months.

Dubey said that even Prime Minister rendra Modi himself has reviewed the border fencing and he has directed that the border fencing must be completed by December 2016.

It may be mentioned that on Friday, HSPDP leader Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit urged the government to legalize cattle trade to curb smuggling.