NEW DELHI: Calling the incomplete fencing of the India-Bangladesh border a “historical mistake”, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said the implementation of the border management provisions of the 1985 Assam Accord has effectively begun only in 2025.Speaking to reporters, Sarma said efforts to curb illegal movement from Bangladesh were delayed because border fencing was initially focused only on Assam and not extended simultaneously to other border states.“The actual implementation of the provisions of the 1985 Assam Accord has started from 2025. We were not able to stop the Bangladeshi movement earlier,” he said.Sarma noted that Assam shares a 1,600-km border with Bangladesh and said that after the Assam Accord was signed, fencing work was undertaken only along the Assam-Bangladesh border.“Assam shares a 1,600-km border with Bangladesh. After signing the Assam Accord, we said that border fencing should be done along the Assam-Bangladesh border, and accordingly, the work was undertaken,” he said.“But we did not think that fencing should be done in Meghalaya, Tripura and West Bengal as well. Our demand should have been for the entire 1,600 km border to be fenced,” he added.The chief minister said large stretches of the border in neighbouring states had remained open for years, facilitating cross-border movement.According to Sarma, nearly 90 per cent of the fencing work in Meghalaya has now been completed, while around 60 per cent has been completed in Tripura. Work is also progressing in Mizoram, he said.He further pointed out that fencing has now been taken up in West Bengal, where nearly 800 km of the India-Bangladesh border had remained unfenced.Questioning the logic of securing only select stretches of the international border, Sarma said, “If Siliguri is open and Mankachar is closed, then what is the meaning? These were historical mistakes.”“The Union Government has formed a committee on demographic changes. I think the government is going to undertake more effective measures in bordering areas concerning demographic changes. Our suggestion will be to conduct scrutiny of the citizenship status of every family residing in the bordering areas,” he added.
