Indian government has spent Rs 1138.48 crore in the last five years for fencing the porous Indo-Bangla border.
Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, “Rs 1138.48 crore has been spent for the international border fencing between India and Bangladesh during the last five years.”
Rai said the schemes for creation of border infrastructure works on Indo-Bangladesh border like fence, road, floodlight and BOPs are in progress.
Out of 4,096 km India-Bangladesh border, 2,803.013 km have been fenced.
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“169.64 km work is in progress and the remaining will be completed by 2020,” said Rai.
“Border guarding forces conduct regular patrolling, lay nakas and establish observation posts and carry out anti tunneling exercise to stop illegal infiltration,” he said.
He admitted that some illegal migrants are able to enter into India.
“However, some illegal migrants are able to enter in a clandestine and surreptitious manner, mainly due to difficult riverine terrain in parts of international border with Bangladesh which are not amenable to physical fencing,” said Rai.
“As such, the accurate number of infiltrators is not available,” added Rai.
He said 496 infiltrators were apprehended from areas along the India-Bangladesh border.