The government has decided to completely seal its winding border with Pakistan by December 2018, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said yesterday.
Talking to reporters here after a meeting to review the situation on the border in the wake of heightened tension with Pakistan, Rajnath Singh said the plan to seal the border will be implemented in a time-bound manner.
“The home ministry has set up a target of fully sealing the Indo-Pakistan border by December 2018. To achieve this target, the action plan prepared is fully time bound and the implementation will be fully monitored periodically - monthly and quarterly,” Singh said.
He said monitoring will be done at the level of home ministry as also at the level of state governments and the Border Security Force (BSF).
“We have given special emphasis on monitoring, because by December 2018, we want to achieve the target of fully sealing the Indo-Pakistan border,” said Singh, adding that technological help will be taken to seal off the riverine sections of the border.
Rajnath Singh said a new concept, “Border Security Grid”, would be put in place and the border states have given their suggestions on it.
“On that basis, we will give a final shape to this Border Security Grid and the central government will issue guidelines in this regard to the respective state governments,” he added.
The meeting was attended by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Gujarat Home Minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja. Chief Secretaries of Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir were also present.
Singh also said that the states have been directed to take action on complaints by the BSF.
“I have also urged the states that whenever the BSF lodges any complaints, they should be properly registered and investigated and charge-sheet be filed. Whosoever found guilty should be punished, and the states have been asked to pay special attention to this aspect,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government yesterday issued instructions reversing its earlier decision to evacuate the villages of Punjab situated within a 10km belt along with Pakistan border.
The move follows a decision of the union home ministry which yesterday revoked its decision that led to the evacuation of villages along Punjab’s 553km international border.
Following this, residents of border villages in Amritsar, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka districts started returning to their home along with their belongings.
The villagers have been allowed to go back after nine days.
The evacuation was ordered on September 29 following the army’s  ‘surgical strikes’ across the Line of Control (LoC).
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, also the Punjab home minister, said the decision to reverse the evacuation of border villages was taken at the meeting with Rajnath Singh in Jaisalmer.
The villagers seemed upset about the evacuation and the sudden reversal. “They should have waited for correct inputs before ordering evacuation. Who will pay for the expenses incurred by the villagers and the losses they have suffered as they had to stay away from work and home for so many days?” asked Gurjot Singh of Dera Baba Nanak area.