GUWAHATI, May 21 - Listing two priorities for the new Government in Assam, Chief Minister-to-be Sarbananda Sonowal today said sealing of the border with Bangladesh in two years and completion of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be done to put an end to infiltration.
�We promised to the people of Assam before the elections that the two key priorities of our Government would be complete sealing of the border and completion of the NRC. �Therefore, we are obliged to show to the people that we are sincere to our promises,� he told PTI in an interview.
A product of the student movement against �foreigners� in the 1980s, Sonowal, who steered the BJP to victory in the elections, and his party had made infiltration one of the major issues in the poll campaign.
He was asked how he intended to seal the Indo-Bangladesh border, an issue he had spoken about on Thursday soon after his party romped home in the election.
�The Indo-Bangladesh border is not completely sealed, especially in riverine areas through which infiltration takes place. We want that it must be completely sealed so that there is zero infiltration from across the border,� the 53-year-old Sonowal said.
He said the other priority would be the early completion of the NRC. �The updation process of NRC is going on. It is getting delayed, but we want to complete it as early as possible.�
The total length of the Indo-Bangladesh border is 4,096 km of which 263 km falls in Assam. In the Assam stretch, 224 km has already been fenced while around 40 km is riverine. � PTI
