Reiterating the commitment to seal the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam, State Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday said the Government has urged the Centre to seal the International Border under the effective supervision of the India Army.
Sonowal said this while addressing the media on the occasion of completion of the BJP- led Government’s 100 days in office and said that he has already written to the Centre so that the Indian Army can be engaged to supervise the construction of border fencing along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam.
Assam has a 262-km-long International Border with Bangladesh. While the erstwhile Congress Government in Assam claimed to have complete 97.75 per cent of the fencing along the International Border, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who had visited the Indo-Bangladesh border in January this year along with a delegation of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), expressed unhappiness over the “gaps in the fencing” in some areas.
“Sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border is a priority for us and I have already urged the Central Government to engage the Indian Army to supervise the Indo-Bangladesh border sealing works. The Indian Army has supervised the construction of the fense on the Indo-Pakistan border in Kashmir. Similarly, we want the Indian Army to supervise the sealing of Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam,” said Sonowal while addressing a Press conference on Thursday.
Sonowal said that his Government has been desperately trying to meet the expectations of the people and added that the Government was not going to compromise on any issue that bothers the people of the State.
“I am sure you’ll agree with me that 100 days are not sufficient to fulfil the expectations of the people. However, my Government and each of the Ministers have been trying their best to fulfil the expectations of the people.
“Our main challenge in these 100 days was to make the administrative machinery transparent and corruption-free,” he said adding that only a transparent and corruption-free machinery will ensure development in true sense of the term.
Sonowal further said that the Government has also been giving utmost importance to the issue of updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and said that work was being done on a war footing to update the NRC by 2017 so that the State can become free of illegal Bangladeshi citizens.
Sonowal said that the Government has also been taking steps to check rise in prices of essential commodities and implement other developmental schemes for the benefit of the people. “We have already announced Chief Minister’s Sampurna Gram Bikash Yojana, which envisages development of over 25,000 villages in Assam within next five years time,” he said adding that with the cooperation of the people, the BJP-led Government in Assam will leave no stone unturned to make Assam one of the most developed States in the country.