STATE TIMES NEWS
Tezpur/Guwahati: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday asserted that the country will be free from the menace of Naxalism in the next three years.
Shah, while addressing the Sashastra Seema Bal’s 60th Raising Day at Salonibari near here, also said among all the central armed police forces, SSB plays “a unique role in minutely integrating culture, history, topography and language” of the border villages, and bringing people in those areas closer to rest of the country.
Besides guarding the borders, the SSB along with other CAPFs have performed their duties effectively against the Naxals in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, he said.
“In the next three years, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country will be 100 per cent free from the Naxal problem,” asserted Shah.
At another event in Guwahati, he said the government will stop free movement of people at the Myanmar border.
Addressing the passing out parade of the first batch of the five newly constituted Assam Police Commando battalions, Shah said the Centre is rethinking the free-movement facility with Myanmar. “The India-Myanmar border will be protected like the Bangladesh border… The Government of India will stop the free movement with Myanmar,” the home minister said. The central government had said it plans to fence a 300-km stretch of unfenced boundary with Myanmar and end the Free Movement Regime, which allows people living on both sides of the international border to travel within 16 km into each other’s territory without visa. He also said the prime minister’s mission of bringing peace and development in the northeast has been successful.