Fencing Necessary on India-Bangladesh Border

Hundreds of Bangladeshis enter the country illegally everyday from Bangladesh. They are spread in almost all cities of India in search of livelihood. The burden of its own population is a matter of concern for India. In addition, hundreds of thousands of foreigners are damaging our economy and social fabric.

Infiltration Continues
Voices are raised against them in India and pressure is also exerted on Bangladesh to control infiltration, but despite that infiltration continues. This infiltration has given rise to several complex problems in India.

Despite giving all sorts of promises, the Bangladesh Government is not preventing the same. In this situation, it has become unavoidable and essential to put fencing on India-Bangladesh border, but the Bangladesh Government is opposing the same. This has kept the matter pending for years. Sometimes, firing takes place between the countries over this issue. Of late, there have been such skirmishes.

Presently, relations between India and Bangladesh are cordial. After the Sheikh Hasina government came to power in Bangladesh, insurgents of northeast India have been driven out from their hideouts there. They had been running their training camps and were carrying out terrorist activities in India, but the matter of fencing a large portion of the border between the countries is not yet sorted out.

High-Level Talks
There were talks between high-level officials of the two countries on the issue, but there was no result. In fact, there is dispute about some areas between the two countries and the reason is there are forest, rivers, and nearly 4,000-km-long border. The differences regarding certain areas have been sorted out, but still there are nearly 100 such locations that have been the cause of dispute between the countries.
Although the disputes are very complex and difficult, it would be in India's interest to solve them. Then, Bangladesh would have no objection to erecting the fence.