Facts:

1. Fencing started in 1986, till date 2677.81 Km of fencing has completed, out of total sanctioned fencing of 3436.59 Km. Source- RTI information dated 13.11.2009.
2. Fencing is supposed to be done 150 yards away from international zero line, which is not followed at many places and fencing is done kilometres away from zero line thus precious Indian land has been abandoned by the state in the backyards of fencing on the Bangladesh side. Source- Brief Note dated 18.05.2009 by the pen of Deputy commissioner- District Karimganj, Assam.
3. A total of Rs. 811.78+4393.67=5205.45 Crore have been spent for fencing till date. Source- RTI information dated 30th November 2009.
4. A good amount of Indian population is fenced and virtually abandoned and their ingress in Indian main land is limited just for 4 hours in a day, timings being 6-7, 9-10 AM; 1-2, 4-5PM in a day, while coming in or going out they are supposed to make entry in a register. Source- copy of order of Deputy Commissioner of Distt. Karimganj Assam to open gate which is not being obeyed by BSF, photograph of the gate where timings are printed, photograph of the register and audiotapes of oral submissions made by the villagers.
5. Marriage prospects of fenced villagers have become gloomy and medical treatment has also become difficult. Source- Brief note page 5 by the on the status of fence and audio/video tape of the oral submission by villagers.
6. All the civic amenities are cut off; the fenced village population has no water pump, electricity, roads, schools or PHC. NREGS work is not allowed. Villagers are not even allowed to reconstruct/repair their own houses. Source- photographs, video footage and audio recorded oral submissions made by villagers.
7. BSF forces the villagers to lend their child to help the BSF to man the gate, each family has to supply a child to BSF as per its turn, those having no child of their own hire others child by money and then fulfil BSF’s requirement. Source- audio recorded oral submission made by villagers.
8. Administrative orders for opening the gates are continuously disobeyed by the BSF. Source-order of Deputy Commissioner- District Karimganj, Assam dated-16th July2008 and 19th December 2008.
9. These fenced Indians are mostly Hindu Scheduled caste or backward Muslims.
10. MoH has no data about border population, and there is no rehabilitation scheme for fenced Indians. Source – RTI information dated- 20th October 2009.
11. Under swarn jayanti gram swarojgar yojana there is no provision to give any compensation/ rehabilitation to the fencing affected people. Source- RTI information dated 19th November 2009.
12. Villagers are not allowed to stock ration for rainy season, they can’t store ration even for a week; what they are allowed is to bring only few Kg of rice, 1kg of pulse and ½ kg of sugar at a time. Source- oral submission on audio and video.
13. Fenced villagers submit a petition to HH. President of India- Source- draft petition dated 18th August 2008.
14. Under Indira Awas Yojana, only one special package to four districts of Tripura has been sanctioned for fencing affected people on the recommendation of Ministry of Home Affairs and to none else; a total of 7744 houses were made. Source- RTI information dated 19th November.
15. Ministry of Home Affairs informs “Entry of illegal Bangladeshis in India being calendestine and surreptitious, it is not possible to estimate the no. of illegal Bangladeshis”. Meaning thereby that govt. has no data about the no. of illegal Bangladeshis in India, which amounts to serious security lacuna. Again only 13692 Bangladeshis in 2006, 12135 in 2007 & 12625 in 2008 overstayed their visa and officially deported. Source- RTI information dated 8th January 2010.

Consequences:

1. More than 3000 km long and atleast 150 yards wide (at many places kilometres wide) precious Indian land, falling in the backyards of fencing, has been virtually abandoned by Indian government.
2. As the access to this land strip is blocked, the land has lost its market value.
3. Fenced Indian citizens are illegally confined in their dwellings for a period of 20 hours daily.
4. In any event of conflict, fenced Indian shall become the first causality and could be used by Bangladeshi forces as human shield against Indian forces.
5. As fenced Indians homes are easily accessible from Bangladesh side, they regularly face raids by Bangladeshi thieves and poachers. Stealing of cattle and abduction of adolescent girls is very common, fenced Indians can’t afford to keep their young female siblings so they send them to the relative’s homes in Indian mainland.
6. Children are losing their childhood, they can’t even play any game in the fenced area as by a single stroke their article of game say ‘football’ will escape Indian territory and enter in Bangladesh.
7. As last time for crossing the gates is 5PM, daily wagers looses wage as they have to windup their work at 4PM, shopkeepers are not able to open shop in evening hours post 4PM, people are forced to go for marketing in morning hours only and return early. Fish catchers are forced to sell their fish catch to middlemen, same case with vegetable growers. A vibrant middlemen economy has emerged which shows that the adverse gate timings are not limited to security concerns only.

Issues:

1. Land acquisition policy of Indian government: government of India under its sovereign powers can acquire any part of private land but it has no constitutional power to block passage to any private land thus making it valueless and forcing an Indian citizen to migrate from his place without getting any compensation. This aspect is very important in view of land acquisition for Proposed SEZ’s (special economic zone).
2. Home Ministry of India has no data on the number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in India, though they accept that infiltration is a reality. This clueless situation is very serious on following counts:

   • First- fencing is all together ineffective, thus wasting thousands of crore on fences is a national loss.
   • Second- internal security is in incompetent hands and there is totals collapse of intelligence machinery.
   • Third- Foreigner’s presence in India may result in many 26/11 in near future.
   • Fourth- if there is no knowledge about the presence of Bangladeshi’s in India then surely there is no knowledge about the presence of other foreigners say presence of Pakistanis, presence of spy’s or that of terrorists. So it is the god saving us, not the state and anything can happen to any Indian anywhere in India.
3. The whole matter is in the Knowledge of Prime Minister, Home Minister and Chief Minister of Assam (I wrote to all of them with evidences) and surely in the knowledge of other state agencies but there is no progress.

Legal aspects:

1. Article 19 of the Constitution of India says 19(1) All citizens shall have the right- (d) to move throughout the territory of India; (e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India; Article 19(5) says “nothing in sub-clause (d) and(e) of the said clause shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it imposes, or prevent the state from making any law imposing, reasonable restriction on the exercise of any right conferred by the said sub-clause either in the interest of the general public or for the protection of the interest of any schedule tribe.
   
   In the present case any restriction put on people’s movement (such as fencing and gate) is not in public interest and also it being not a tribal area, any restriction put on peoples movement is violation of the fundamental rights of Indian citizens guaranteed under Article 19(1)(d)&(e) because such restrictions cannot be put even in the name of security unless there is state of emergency, marshal law or war.
2. Article 21 of the Constitution of India reads: Protection of life and personal liberty- ‘No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by Law’.
   Here it is important to mention that

   • Fencing is not a legal creation but that of an administrative (cabinet) decision.
   • Interpretation of Article 21 is required whether 20 hours movement blockage amounts to illegal confinement?
   • It is true that government cannot provide work to everybody, but right to livelihood is part of Article 21 because livelihood gives life (Supreme Court in various cases has accepted it). Interpretation of Constitution (Article 21) is necessary whether any state action which reduces the working hours for a farmer, daily wager or shopkeeper or self employed person amounts to deprivation from right to livelihood.
3. Indian state has to function in consonance with the directive principles of state policy, hence legal interpretation is required whether cutting of electricity, water, civic amenities, blocking road construction, Indira Awas, education, medical facilities etc. can be done by state even when there is no ostensible danger of foreign aggression?
4. Right to Property is no more a fundamental right being put in Article 300-A which says “no person shall be deprived of his property save by the authority of Law”, but it is still subject to judicial scrutiny on the ground whether the acquisition or requisition is for public purpose and whether adequate compensation is paid. Further it is still an open question whether deprivation of property amounts to acquisition or requisition? In the present case fencing is done in such a way as to deprive the Indian citizens from their property rendering property valueless. So here interpretation of constitution is further required.

On these lines I am going to file a case in Supreme Court of India.