As part of his Tripura visit, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday inspected Indo-Bangla border at Kathalchari in Sabroom. Accompanied by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, the Union Home Minister held discussions with the BSF officials and reviewed border infrastructure development.
During the visit, Susanta Kumar Nath, IPS IG BSF Tripura Frontier made a detailed briefing about various challenges faced by BSF troops in the sphere of operational domination, infrastructure/developmental work etc.
Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Union Home Secretary, Pankaj Kumar Singh, DG BSF and Y.B. Khurania, ADG(EC) BSF were also present.
Nath also highlighted various challenges being faced by BSF Tripura.
According to a BSF press release, some of the major issues are- (1)operational challenges ranging from anti-national elements like smugglers and infiltrators active in the Western and Northern border to the insurgents active in Eastern border of Tripura State, (2) Infrastructure Challenges ranging from building and upkeep of border fence, border roads, border flood lights and Border Out Posts(BOPs) situated along the border line and (3) the living condition challenges faced by the troops due to the in-hospitable and in-accessible hilly jungle terrain in the Eastern border of the State of Tripura where there still remains huge challenges in terms of electrification, provision of potable drinking water and construction of proper Pakka hebitable structures in the BOPs besides the road connectivity and tele-communication challenges which needs be addressed effectively.
The Union Home Minister also made detailed review of various border infrastructure projects with particular emphasis on border fencing to plug all the existing gaps all along the 856 Kms long International Border in the State of Tripura.In this regard, the construction of various different models of fencing including Composite Fence, Smart New Design Fence and Single Row Fence in different patches were discussed at length.
He passed several instructions to senior BSF officials and other concerned to maintain good liaison with various agencies in order to clear the hurdles coming in the way of such constructions.
During the field visit and review, the Union Home Minister also interacted with the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary Kumar Alok, and DGP Tripura V S Yadav among other officials.
It transpired during such interaction that the BSF Tripura Frontier is working in close co-ordination with all the wings of State Govt of Tripura in effectively overcoming the bottlenecks in developing various border infrastructure projects like border fence, border road and border flood lighting. BSF, Tripura Frontier has also been carrying out extensive joint operations in co-ordination with State Police and other security agencies in ordered to address the menace of illicit trafficking of narcotics substances like Yaba tablets, Phensedyl Syrup, Dry Ganja etc in the State of Tripura. Hon’ble Union Home Minister also praised the recent achievements of BSF Tripura Frontier on this front.
The Union Home Minister also visited the Field Areas under Border Out Post and physically inspected the border infrastructure and developmental works including border fencing, Border Roads, Border Flood Lights etc. He issued several instructions to senior officials attending the reviewed to make all out efforts to complete all the pending fencing work and plug all the remaining gaps at the earliest.
