Union Home Minister Amit Shah today informed about the Centre’s decision to seal the porous India-Myanmar border soon. Not only this, the Union Home Minister also informed about the Centre’s decision to do away with the Free Movement Regime (FMR).
Home Minister Shah made these announcements while attending a passing out parade of Assam Police commandos in Guwahati.
The announcements have come amid reports that more than 500 Myanmar Army soldiers have crossed over to the Indian territory in Mizoram owing to violence.
Shah, highlighting the strategic importance of Northeast and the government’s decision to seal the border with Myanmar said, “I want to tell my friends of Assam that the unfenced border with Myanmar, the Narendra Modi government has made a decision that we will secure the border with fencing and will look forward to completely seal the border just like it has been done in case of the border with Bangladesh. The Centre is also relooking into the Free Movement Regime (FMR) with Myanmar. The government is going to close this FMR.”
India and Myanmar share a 1,643 km border across Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, of which only 10 km is fenced, in Manipur.
The FMR allows tribes living along the border on either side, many of whom share ethnic bonds, to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa and stay up to two weeks.
The Free Movement Regime (FMR), implemented in 2018, allows people residing on either side of the India-Myanmar border to venture 16 km into each other’s territory without visa.
