Who is to blame for underdeveloped border areas?

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Underdevelopment of the bordering areas of Assam when compared to the contiguous areas of the neighbouring states leaves the fringe dwellers in Assam deprived of basic civic amenities. They also have to face harassment from the people of the neighbouring states, who take advantage of these residents’ dependence on them. Who is responsible for the bordering areas of Assam remaining underdeveloped year after year?

Assam shares a 2741-km boundary with Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura, and West Bengal. The Department of Border Area Protection and Development gets a meagre budgetary allocation for this long interstate border. In the past three financial years, the department received around Rs 38 crore under the border area development scheme, and the department could spend around Rs 24 crore.

According to sources, roads, hospitals, drinking water facilities, schools, and other infrastructure on the Assam side of the interstate border are very poor. On the contrary, such facilities on the other side of the border are much more developed. Since Assam fringe dwellers avail of such benefits from the neighbouring states, people from the other side of the border continue to take advantage of that.

For instance, in the Langpi and Hahim localities, the Meghalaya side has developed blacktop roads, drinking water facilities, schools, and hospitals. The Assam side has a primary health centre where medical officers visit only weekly or after ten days. The area has a Garo-medium school that has no Garo teacher. The Garo students of the area go to the schools in Meghalaya.

According to sources, most of the inter-state border areas in Assam are reserve forest lands that have a lot of restrictions on carrying out developmental activities. On the contrary, the other sides in the neighbouring states have no such restrictions. They can carry out development activities in their fringe areas. Assam has several villages that have no power connection. According to sources, the condition of the residential quarters for the battalion sepoys deployed in the BOPs (border outposts) is also very poor.

Negotiations on disputed border areas are going on with the neighbouring states, but the problems will continue to persist unless the State Government develops its border areas.

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