NEW DELHI, Aug 1 � With illegal influx from Bangladesh continuing unabated, the Home Ministry is looking at various options including the introduction of high-tech gadgets like laser guns in inhospitable stretches to detect intruders along the international border with the neighbouring country.
According to sources, India has managed to list out all the gaps which exist on the Indo-Bangladesh border and can be fenced. The gaps will be fenced even if India has to move closer to the border and getting that fencing sanctioned if it has not been sanctioned.
India has identified spots where New Delhi needed to take concurrence of Bangladesh. Wherever India has to move closer than 150 yards, it has to take the permission of the Bangladesh government. So far, India has managed to get concurrence on almost all the spots barring 37, divulged sources.
The discussions on Indo-Bangladesh border management regularly figure during the Home Secretary-level dialogue between the two countries.
Sources said that India plans to plug the gaps and complete the fencing along the international border. About the places where fencing is not feasible, the sources said that the Centre has decided to opt for technological solutions to detect intruders. �Our objective is to plug the fencing and, therefore, reduce whatever infiltration is there,� said sources.
Floodlighting is going on. Availability of power is an issue and the Home Ministry has requested the Ministry of Power to sanction direct allocation from the Central Pool, said the sources.
The sources added that India faces some typical problems along the Indo-Bangladesh border. Number one is the Zero Line construction because at many places, the border passes right through the heart of a city, including in Assam.
�Bangladesh authorities are not allowing us to set up the fence on the border. They say that we have to go 150 yards inside the border. If we go 150 yards inside the border, then a certain population of India gets outside the fence, towards Bangladesh. We want to avoid that. There are 185 such spots. We have requested the Bangladesh government to allow us to do Zero Line construction,� said the sources.
The Ministry of External Affairs has been selling the idea that ratification of the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) would resolve about 80 per cent of the problems.
The terrain on the Indo-Bangladesh border is unique and there are some places where no construction can be undertaken. �For them, we are adopting technical solutions. We are looking at whether we can put some laser guns or something through which physically people cannot come. If they come, we are able to detect them at least,� the sources added.
