Imphal, May 2 Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Friday reviewed the progress of the ongoing border fencing work along the India-Myanmar frontiers, officials said.
A Raj Bhavan official said that the Governor at a high level meeting reviewed the progress of the ongoing India-Myanmar border fencing work along Manipur including issues pertaining to the execution of the fencing work all along the India-Myanmar border with other northeastern states.
During the meeting, held at Raj Bhavan, officials of Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) briefed the Governor on the progress and highlighted matters related to land acquisition, approach roads, fencing, security, manpower and other related issues.
The BRTF is a unit under the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). Manipur Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Singh, Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh, Director General of Police Rajiv Singh, Commissioner (Home) N. Ashok Kumar,Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Secretary to Governor, officials from Assam Rifles attended the meeting among others.
Deputy Commissioner of five border districts also attended the review meeting via video conference.
Another official said that the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has stepped up India-Myanmar border fencing work near Moreh town in Manipur's Tengnoupal district last year. The fencing work would be done in a phase-wise, he said.
The border fencing work was undertaken by ‘Project Sewak’ which is looking after road construction in Nagaland and Manipur. The ‘Project Sewak’ headquarters is in Nagaland’s Dimapur, the officer said.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has earlier decided that the entire 1,643 km porous India-Myanmar border, known for the smuggling of arms, ammunition and narcotics, would be fenced at a cost of Rs 31,000 crore.
Manipur shares 398 km border with Myanmar while Arunachal Pradesh shares 520 km, Nagaland 215 km and Mizoram 510 km. Various Naga, Mizo, Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal organisations, some local political parties along with Nagaland and Mizoram governments are against the India-Myanmar border fencing.
The two northeastern state governments and other organisations claimed that border movement restrictions through the fencing and scraping of Free Movement Regime (FMR) across the India-Myanmar border would severely affect the long-standing historical, ethnic, social, cultural, traditional and economic ties of Nagas, Mizos, Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribals living on both sides of the India-Myanmar border.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last year announced that the FMR, which allows people residing along the India-Myanmar border to travel 16 km into each other’s territory without a visa, would be scrapped soon. Instead, the MHA decided to replace the FMR to adopt a new scheme to issue a pass to the border residents of both India and Myanmar living within 10 km on either side of the frontier to regulate cross-border movements.
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