Mixed reactions in the northeast to Centre’s decision to fence India-Myanmar border
The Hindu
Mixed reactions arise as Home Minister Amit Shah announces plans to fence the India-Myanmar border for better surveillance, with some states in favor and others against.
GUWAHATI
Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement that the Centre would fence the India-Myanmar border to facilitate better surveillance and pave a patrol track has evoked mixed reactions from the rulers of five northeastern States.
While the Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Manipur have welcomed the decision, their Mizoram and Nagaland counterparts are against putting up a barbed wire fence along the 1,643 km border between the two countries. Of these States, only Assam does not share its border with Myanmar
Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh was the first to demand barbed wire fencing along the border with Myanmar, which he felt would go a long way in preventing Myanmar nationals from entering his State illegally.
In September 2023, he appealed to the Centre to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) agreement between the two countries that allows border residents to travel up to 16 km in each others’ territory without any visa. He argued that extremists had been exploiting the FMR to stoke ethnic violence in Manipur since May 3, 2023.
Of the 390 km border that Manipur shares with Myanmar, about 10 km is fenced.
Mr. Singh did not express his views on the fencing plan but reposted what Mr. Shah had written on X.