Rajnath to chair meeting on India-Myanmar border

Aizawl, June 8: Home Minister Rajnath Singh will meet the Chief Ministers of four northeastern states bordering Myanmar here on Monday to review the security situation and will also visit the border areas by chopper, an official said.

The Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh (Pema Khandu), Nagaland (Shurhozelie Liezietsu), Manipur (N. Biren Singh) and Mizoram (Lal Thanhawla) will be attending the review meeting to discuss the status of infrastructure along the India-Myanmar border, a Home Ministry official said.

Issues like implementation of Border Area Development Programme (BADP) projects, streamlining the Free Movement Regime (FMR) for better facilitation of movement of people across the border, works relating to boundary survey and other co-ordination issues between the states and the border guarding force, Assam Rifles, would also be discussed.

Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, Chief Secretaries, Directors General of Police (DGPs) of the respective states and Director General of Assam Rifles Lt General Shokin Chauhan, including senior officials from the concerned central ministries, will also be present in the meeting.

"The Union Home Minister would be visiting Myanmar border areas by helicopter on Tuesday. The Minister would also interact with senior Assam Rifles officers on the prevailing situation along the India-Myanmar frontier," the official added.

Last month, around 280 people from Myanmar's Ralie village in Arakan took shelter at Lungpuk and Khalkhy mountainous villages in Saiha district of southern Mizoram.

Assam Rifles troopers posted along the Myanmar border areas and the Saiha district administration provided necessary aid and support, including food, to the refugees who were subsequently repatriated.

"The India-Myanmar unfenced borders along Mizoram are being frequently used by smugglers to smuggle drugs, arms and contraband from Myanmar," the official said.

Mizoram shares an unfenced 510-km border with Myanmar and 318 km with Bangladesh, providing infiltrators, terrorists and smugglers an opportunity to illegally move across the border.

There is a 16-km-wide free zone (8 km on either side of the frontier) along the 1,643-km unfenced India-Myanmar border.

Four northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Manipur (398 km), Nagaland (215 km) and Mizoram (510 km) -- share the 1,643-km mountainous border with Myanmar.

IANS