Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh will meet with heads of four Border States – Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab on Friday and Saturday to discuss sealing of the India-Pakistan border.
Singh will meet with Chief Ministers Mehbooba Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, Vijay Rupani of Gujarat, Vasundhara Raje of Rajasthan and Deputy CM of Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal in Jaisalmer, aside from the state home ministers, to deliberate on ways to completely seal the border, Hindustan Times in a report said on Friday.
The meeting is expected to bring synergy among the state police forces and the Border Security Force, which guards the border, to bolster India’s defence, a home ministry official said.
Issues concerning the states are also expected to be discussed during the two-day meet.
Of the 3,323 km border India shares with Pakistan, 508 km is in Gujarat, 1037 km in Rajasthan, 553 km in Punjab and Jammu-Kashmir has 1225 km. But the only 2289.66km of it is properly demarcated as the international border (IB) and is under operational control of the home ministry.
The rest of the dividing line is in Jammu and Kashmir, a de-facto border called the Line of Control (LoC), which is guarded under the operational control of defence ministry.
Of the 2,289.66 km international border, 2,034.96 km is covered with physical barriers, including fencing.
Now, the government plans to cover the remaining 254.80 km with physical and non-physical barriers soon in order to effectively seal it.
