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Krittivas Mukherjee in Calcutta
India has hurriedly resumed fencing its border with Bangladesh amid reports of a large-scale influx of refugees from the neighbouring country.
Fencing of the international border has begun in West Bengal's Nadia district, through which hundreds of Hindus are fleeing Muslim-dominated Bangladesh, a top official in the Border Security Force said.
West Bengal has a 2,216-km border with Bangladesh, and only one-fourth of it is fenced.
The porous border is used by a large number of Bangladeshi Hindus to cross into India to allegedly escape religious persecution at the hands of Islamic radicals who have become active after a nationalist coalition came to power last month.
Though Bangladesh claims that such reports are 'blown out of proportion', hundreds of Hindus have reportedly taken shelter in West Bengal's border districts of South Dinajpur, Malda and North 24 Parganas since October 15.
Many of them are putting up with their relatives in these districts, while others have taken shelter in makeshift shanties.
Authorities are trying to fence off the 112-km border in Nadia district and move on to 'other areas where the infiltration level is high'.
Work on the erection of border pillars, which was being carried on jointly by the BSF and Bangladesh Rifles, had been suspended in April in the wake of a border clash.
The work was also halted in parts of Malda district after protests by villagers demanding rehabilitation of hundreds of families that would be displaced because of the fencing.
The fence is set to run through hundreds of houses and schools and acres of farmland in the six villages of Soneghat, Taltala, Ghuntadaha, Bottoli, Nandinadah and Rangamati.
Villagers claimed that the fencing would displace about 700 families and that three villages would fall on the wrong side.
The villagers began demonstrating in November last year when they demanded that the fence be shifted back towards the international border so as not to disturb habitations. But BSF officials turned down the suggestion because of 'technical difficulties'.
Any fence along an international border has to be erected at least 150 yards from the actual frontier. In the case of the India-Bangladesh boundary, whose demarcation is at places hazy, there have been instances where houses straddle both sides of the border.
The fencing of the 4,000-km long India-Bangladesh border is to be carried out in a phased manner.
Under the first phase, 2,429-km is to be fenced at a cost of Rs 13.34 billion that has already been sanctioned by the federal government. The amount includes funds for the construction of 797 km-long border roads.
Most of the 2,216-km border in West Bengal remains unguarded. Intelligence agencies have repeatedly been pressing for speedy fencing of the porous boundary to prevent illegal migration.
Indo-Asian News Service
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