SSB to boost vigil on Nepal border

Shrikumar Bandopadhyay in the SSB's Siliguri frontier office on Wednesday. Picture by Passang Yolmo

TT, Siliguri, Feb. 22: The Sashatra Seema Bal will post two more battalions along India-Nepal border in Sikkim for better vigil, a top officer of the force said today.

Shrikumar Bandopadhyay, the new inspector-general of the SSB's Siliguri frontier, who had recently taken charge, today said Jaigaon and Panitanki, located on India-Bhutan and India-Nepal borders, would get two integrated check posts (ICPs) by 2018.

According to him, the SSB is guarding the 91km-long stretch of the India-Nepal border with one battalion. Most of the areas on the border are forests and hills. There are 18 border outposts along the border.

"We will post two more battalions - one at Rangli and another at Yuksum (both in Sikkim). The basic objective is to reduce the gap between the BOPs so that border patrolling can be done more intensely," he told the media at the frontier headquarters at Ranidanga, on the Siliguri outskirts.

He also informed that in the current fiscal, the SSB had seized different items like narcotics, red sandalwood, cattle and other contraband worth Rs 115.52 crore and had apprehended 1,101 people.

The Siliguri Frontier is covering 315km of the India-Nepal border and 215km of the India-Bhutan border.

"Two ICPs will be set up at Jaigaon and Panitanki for better vigil and border management. These will help us carry out all necessary formalities," the IG said. We are looking for land and expect to start the work in a couple of years."