Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday visited the Karimganj sector of Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam and assured that the fencing of the international border will be completed by December 2016.
The Union Home Minister also said that while the works for sealing the international border by erecting barbed fencing is on war footing, the Central Government is also working to stop infiltration from the other side of the border that takes place using the riverine border between the two countries.
“I have seen the developments regarding the sealing of the border. The works have been started and we hope to complete the fencing works by December 2016. Efforts are also on to stop the infiltration that takes place by using boats through the riverine border,” said Singh while addressing a public rally at Ramkrishna Nagar at Karimganj district in Assam’s Barak valley. Singh addressed the public rally after visiting the international border.
Accompanied by Union Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Sarbananda Sonowal, and a delegation of the All Assam Students Union (Aasu), Singh visited the Steamerghat border outpost (BOP) along the International Border. Singh is scheduled to visit Sonahat BOP in Dhubri sector of the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam’s Dhubri district on Sunday before winding up his two-day visit.
The Home Minister also countered the allegation of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi that the Centre has cut the flow of funds to the northeast and said that Centre is committed towards development of the north-eastern region of India. “The Centre has so far allocated Rs92,000 crore for the development of north-east region and major portion of this is for Assam,” Said Singh.
Stressing that the updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) should be completed at the earliest, Singh said that all the funds allocated for the NRC updation have already been released to complete the process.
He said that the Centre is not only working on developing the highways for the northeast region but also thinking about I way. “We are planning to connect the north-eastern region of the country with optical fibre and works are on in this regard. A total of Rs7,000 crore have already been sanctioned for this,” Singh said.
Asked about the attack at Pathankot, the Home Minister said that it is due to the prior intelligence inputs that the causality is less in Pathankot attack. “Such attack is condemnable and Indian forces have given a befitting reply to the perpetrators of violence. The country is safe in the hands of present Government,” he said while answering to the queries of newsmen on the sidelines of the rally.