By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Chandigarh : Farmers along Punjab’s border areas have reason to cheer as India’s Border Security Force (BSF) is to move an electrified fence closer to the international border with Pakistan, reclaiming 4,000 acres of fertile farmland.
In the process, agricultural land will be gained in the border districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Ferozepur. The BSF has got the nod from the home ministry.
Farmers have despaired ever since they were cut off partially for nearly two decades from their own land due to the electrified barbed wire fence along the 553-km-long India-Pakistan international border in Punjab. The fence was put up in over 460 km – the rest of the area being either the river beds of Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers or marshy land where it could not be laid.
At present, the electrified fence is between 100 metres and over one kilometre away from the border. Put up in the late 1980s to halt terrorist infiltration into Punjab, the fence is located within Indian territory. Due to the zigzag border, authorities had decided to keep the fence in a straight line at most places to make monitoring easier.
This led to vast tracts of agricultural land being left in the bulges on the other side of the fence. Over 15,000 acres of land came on the other side after the fence came up.
The fence displaced hundreds of border farmers whose agricultural land fell on the other side of the fence.
The farmers were allowed restricted entry to their own fields by the BSF after thorough, at times humiliating, physical frisking at the fence gates to ensure that no weapons, drugs and humans were smuggled in.
Agricultural activity for these farmers was restricted to just a few hours, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
“The work on putting up the fence right next to the international border will start early next year. Farmers will get back over 4,000 acres of their agricultural land. This will make farming easier. We have been receiving complaints of humiliation during frisking but security could not be compromised,” BSF Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) G.S. Gill told IANS here.
The re-location of the fence will cost millions of rupees to the central government.
“The fence is a major deterrent for those trying to sneak in. Even smugglers have a hard time due to this,” Gill said.
With the BSF personnel at the Punjab border now possessing hi-tech thermal imagers and other night surveillance devices, it has now become possible to monitor the IB day and night.
The fence that will now be re-located is nearly 25 km in length. Much of this is in the Jalalabad area of Ferozepur district, over 250 km from here. It is an area notorious for smuggling activity.