The Centre has decided to construct a fence along the entire 1,643-kilometer-long Indo-Myanmar border, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday. He also said that to facilitate better surveillance, a patrol track along the border will be paved. Out of the total border length, a 10 km stretch in Moreh, Manipur, has already been fenced.
"Furthermore, two pilot projects of fencing through a Hybrid Surveillance System (HSS) are under execution. They will fence a stretch of 1 km each in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur," he said, adding that fence works covering approx 20 km in Manipur have also been approved, and the work will start soon.
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The fencing announcement comes amid months-long ethnic conflict in Manipur, which shares a nearly 400 km long border with Myanmar. Recently, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh accused the previous central governments of neglecting the northeastern state and its concerns over the 390-km-long border with Myanmar.
The Chief Minister said this neglect had led to the ethnic violence between the Metei and Kuki tribes in Manipur last year. He blamed illegal immigrants from Myanmar for the clashes. He said Manipur has a long border with Myanmar and communities on this side and that side are the same tribe.
"They speak the same language...have the same culture. At that time, if there had been fencing and a pass system, there would not have been problems today," he said while speaking to NDTV.
In September last year, the Manipur Chief Minister urged the Union Home Ministry to cancel the free movement regime along the India-Myanmar border and complete its fencing. He said the present situation was a result of unplanned policies of the previous governments.
"Our government has requested the Union Home Ministry to cancel the free movement regime. Also, security forces have not properly guarded the border. Instead of being deployed at zero point, they were found guarding the border 14-15 km inside Indian territory," he claimed.
The free movement regime allows people residing close to both sides of the India-Myanmar border to venture 16 km deep into each other's territory without any documents.
Singh said the government will continue to deal with the influx of "illegal immigrants" and stressed the need for complete fencing of the India-Myanmar border. "The Union Home Ministry has taken steps to fence 60 km of the international border in Manipur," he said.
(With inputs from PTI)