Date:03/01/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/03/stories/2006010313380300.htm

Other States - Assam

Patil, AASU leaders inspect border fencing

Sushanta Talukdar

Student body not convinced that influx is not alarming

Border porous, not fully fenced: AASU
Centre to announce time frame for implementation of Assam Accord

We are committed to implementing it: Gogoi

Guwahati: Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, along with Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and leaders of the All-Assam Students Union (AASU), on Monday inspected erection of barbed wire fence along the border with Bangladesh in the Assam sector.

At a meeting prior to the visit, Central government officials and Mr. Gogoi tried in vain to convince the AASU that influx across the Assam sector of the border was not as alarming as the student body feared.

Mr. Patil attended the meeting among the Centre, the State Government and the AASU to review the status of the implementation of the Assam Accord.

An official present at the meeting told The Hindu that Border Security Force Director-General R. S. Mooshahary said that going by the arrests being made on the border and detection and deportation one could not come jump to the conclusion that the influx had increased.

The AASU leaders, however, insisted that illegal migration had assumed a grave proportion as the border was yet to be fully fenced, the official said.

Mr. Patil declined to take questions at a press briefing, which lasted hardly 10 minutes, at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi international airport. He said the tripartite talks were "very cordial."

"The AASU leaders were forthright in explaining their point of view relating to the implementation of the Assam Accord," he said.

AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said it was agreed that the Centre would announce within a month a time frame for implementation of the Assam Accord.

"We have impressed upon the Home Minister that at least 14 fundamentalist organisations have been imparting training to illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Assam by taking advantage of the porous international border. We reiterated that the Assam Accord has to be implemented in a definite time frame and the border has to be sealed a la the Indo-Pak. border. Infiltration has posed a grave threat to the existence of indigenous people of Assam."

Mr. Gogoi said both the Centre and the State Government were committed to the implementation of the accord in a time-bound manner.