Centre plans border protection grid to check influx of Rohingyas, Bangladeshis

KOLKATA: A border protection grid on the lines of Unified Command set up in insurgency-hit states will soon come up in five eastern states sharing borders with Bangladesh to check illegal immigrants including Rohingyas.

At a meeting of chief ministers and home ministers of West Bengal, Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura here, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said the concept of the grid has been planned as a multi-pronged and foolproof mechanism to secure the 4,036-km-long Indo-Bangla border.

"The grid will comprise various elements namely physical barriers, non-physical barriers, surveillance, system, Intelligence agencies, state police, BSF and other state and central agencies," he said in his opening remarks.


Of the border with Bangladesh, 2,217 km falls in West Bengal, 262 km in Assam, 443 km in Meghalaya, 856 km in Tripura and 180 km in Mizoram.

This is the fourth meeting of the chief ministers of states, which share international borders, called by the home minister. Three separate meetings of chief ministers of states, sharing borders with Pakistan, China and Myanmar, was held earlier.

Unified Command structures comprising army, paramilitary forces and state police are in place in states like Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Nagaland to effectively deal with militants.

Influx of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis though the porous Indo-Bangla border has been major concerns for India.