New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday asked the federal government to complete the fencing of the India-Bangladesh border where it has not been done to check illegal immigration.
“The Union (central government) will take all effective steps to complete the fencing (double coiled wire fencing) in such parts/portions of the Indo-Bangla border (including the state of Assam) where fencing is yet to be completed,” the bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman said in their judgment on a number of petitions.
The court also referred to the constitution bench the validity of section 6A of the Citizenship Act. The said provision was enacted after the AASU-Centre accord in 1985.
Noting that the Assam portion of the border with Bangladesh was 267km long, out of which 44 km was riverine, Justice Nariman said: “We are at a loss to understand why 67 years after independence, the eastern border is left porous. “We have been reliably informed that the entire western border with Pakistan being 3,300km long is not only properly fenced but properly manned as well and is not porous at
any point.”
“We are given to understand that most parts of the border with West Bengal and other northeastern states are also porous and very easy to cross,” the court said.
Coupled with the direction for the fencing of the border stretch yet to be covered, the court said the “vigil along the riverine boundary will be effectively maintained by continuous patrolling”.
Motorable roads along the border, wherever incomplete, will be laid so as to enable effective and intensive patrolling, the
court said. IANS
