NEW DELHI, Nov 30 - In a fresh initiative to check illegal infiltration from across the border, the Border Security Force (BSF) is going to introduce a hi-tech Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) in the Dhubri sector next year.
Addressing an annual press conference to mark the raising day of the border guarding force on December 1, BSF DG, Rajni Kant Mishra said that the original plan was to introduce the system in Assam in December, but it has been rescheduled.
�All the gadgets have been procured and it is now being integrated,� he said, adding that the CIBMS has been successful in detecting infiltrations in the Kashmir sector.
�A 60-km project over Brahmaputra in Dhubri district is being executed by the BSF and it is expected to be completed by December. The BSF is the first border guarding force of India to install CIBMS on the international border,� Mishra said.
The BSF has taken over the task of erecting physical barrier on the entire international border to make it impregnable for any kind of illegal infiltration. However, there are stretches, which are difficult to be covered by physical fence and hence it was decided to install technological solutions on these gaps at various places covering an area of about 2,026 km.
The CIBMS, which is a combination of surveillance devices, data backbone, communication network and command control centre, multiplies human surveillance by sensor-based surveillance and ensures infiltration attempts do not go undetected, the DG explained.
Two such pilot projects, covering approximately 5.5 km, have been completed in Jammu and Kashmir. These projects are under critical analysis and based on experience, similar projects shall be executed at other locations, he said.
Meanwhile, a top BSF official said that they are keeping a close watch on the changing population pattern in the areas bordering Bangladesh. The BSF, for instance, has noted that Muslim population in border district of Rajasthan has undergone changes.
Asked whether India has raised the illegal infiltration problem with Bangladesh during the DG-level dialogue, Mishra evaded the question but said that the BSF keeps apprehending illegal migrants and hands them over to Border Guards Bangladesh.
He denied that the BSF had undertaken any study on radicalisation of people living in the border districts of India.
In the eastern sector, a 2.5-km area of international border in West Bengal has been declared crime free, he said.
About infiltration of Rohingyas, the DG said that in the last one year altogether 54 Rohingyas were apprehended while entering India and 176 were caught while exiting the country.
Admitting that cattle smuggling � from Sunderbans in West Bengal to Assam � was a major headache for BSF, the DG said that 48,000 cattle were captured till November 27 and were handed over to the local law enforcement agencies. At least 79 BSF personnel were injured in the operations. �We use pump action guns and sometime also fire from rifles,� he said.
He said plans are afoot to set up composite border outposts along the Indo-Bangladesh border. The first of such BOP has already been set up in Tripura, he informed.
