Indo-Bangladesh border will be sealed by December: Sarbananda Sonowal

GUWAHATI: The Indo-Bangladesh border in the state will be completely sealed by December, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said Thursday, while underlining the BJP-led government's commitment to make Assam free of illegal immigrants.

"While the riverine areas along the border will be sealed with non-physical barriers, the portion on land will be secured with smart fencing, which will stop infiltration and other illegal cross border activities," Sonowal told reporters on the day his government completed two years in office.

The chief minister also said the remaining part of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be published on June 30, 2018. The partial first draft of NRC was published on December 31, 2017.


“The work of updation is on. This exercise which is the first in the country is monitored by Supreme Court and around 50,000 state government officials are involved in it," he said.

When asked about the state government’s stand on the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, against which protests were on in different parts of the state, he said: “We will not do anything which is against the interest of Assam."

The bill for making minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for applying for Indian citizenship is under the consideration of JPC of both the Houses

The chief minister said that apart from checking illegal immigration, his government was also cracking down on corruption as he had promised before elections.

The arrest of several officials, including the Chairman of Assam Public service commission and two others members, has created transparency, he claimed.

"People of Assam are once again reposing their trust on the government machinery. Investors are looking up to Assam,” Sonowal said,

Sonowal said the state government created over 45,000 jobs in the last two years and that it wascommitted to provide land rights as per the recommendation of HS Brahma committee report.

The interim report of the Committee for Protection of Land Rights of Indigenous People, headed by former Chief Election Commissioner HS Brahma revealed that indigenous people of Assam were being reduced to a landless class due to unrestricted infiltration by Bangladeshis.