Fence hits panel wall

Villagers nix BSF plan

Shillong, Feb. 9 : The BSF move to fence the 130-km-long border in Khasi-Jaintia Hills has run into opposition with the Co-ordination Committee on International Border Fencing (CCIBF), comprising pressure groups, reiterating that the fencing be initiated close to the zero line and not 150 yards away from it. The BSF inspector-general of Assam-Meghalaya frontier, Prithvi Raj, had recently said that the fencing should be carried out 150 yards away from the zero line, at the earliest. The IG also blamed the administration for not being able to acquire land and move ahead with the fencing project. Reacting to this, the spokesperson for the CCIB, G.H. Kharshanlor, today said that fencing within 150 yards was not acceptable to them. “We had met chief minister D.D. Lapang at the end of last year and he had directed the National Building Construction Company (NBCC) to cancel the already floated tender for the fencing work, Kharshanlor said. During the internal security meeting of chief ministers in New Delhi yesterday, Lapang said that villagers feared they would not be able to harvest their crop beyond the fence, if the work was initiated 150 yards away from the zero line. Union home minister P. Chidambaram chaired the meeting. According to the chief minister, vast fertile land would be lost if the fence is erected 150 yards away from the zero line. Welcoming the views expressed by the chief minister on border fencing, Kharshanlor said the committee would follow up the matter during a meeting with Lapang once he returns from New Delhi. “We will not allow the NBCC to construct border fencing 150 yards away from the zero line, come what may,” Kharshanlor added. He also said the people residing along the border and the heads of the traditional bodies should be taken into confidence before fencing was carried out. The BSF inspector-general had earlier offered the services of the Mahila BSF battalion to assist the women in border areas while they go for farming after construction of the fence. He had assured that even if the fencing started within 150 yards from the zero line, the BSF would erect gates for free movement of the farmers from Meghalaya. According to the BSF, border fencing will minimise transborder crimes, including smuggling.