Porous India-Bangladesh border in Assam to be sealed: Rajnath Singh

Guwahati: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday visited Karimganj sector of the India-Bangladesh border in Assam and said the porous border will be sealed in 2016.

The home minister, who arrived in Assam on Sunday on a two-day visit, said inspected the Stemerghat Border Out Posts (BOP) in Karimganj district. He said the porous border should have been sealed long time ago.

Singh was accompanied by union Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Sarbananda Sonowal, who hails from Assam, some Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and a delegation of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), including its chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya, president Dipank Nath and general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi during the visit to the border.

In August last year, Singh participated at a seminar organised by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) in New Delhi on implementation of the Assam Accord and assured the AASU leaders he would make a visit to the India-Bangladesh border with their delegation.

The union minister is likely to address a public rally at Karimganj on Sunday before returning to Guwahati. He is scheduled to meet prominent intellectuals of the state at the Brahmaputra State Guest House in Guwahati in the evening. 

On Monday, Singh will visit Dhubri sector of the India-Bangladesh border with the AASU delegation to take stock of the situation. He is scheduled to address a public rally in the district before returning to New Delhi.

"The minister had expressed his desire for a joint visit of the international border during a seminar organised by us in New Delhi last year. Today, he has come to visit. We have showed him the open international border in Karimganj district. The union home minister has assured that the border would be sealed within this year," said AASU president Dipank Nath.

"The home minister has also informed us that the issues which have affected the sealing of the border in Karimganj district since November last year, have been taken up with Bangladesh government and sorted out amicably," Dipank Nath said, expressing happiness over the development.