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Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday, June 13, said the signatories of the 1985 Assam Accord should have demanded fencing of the entire India-Bangladesh border instead of restricting the demand to Assam.

Speaking at a programme organised at the BJP headquarters in Guwahati to mark 12 years of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, Sarma said the focus should have been on securing the border across all five states that share a boundary with Bangladesh — Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and West Bengal.

He alleged that the Congress had committed a "historical mistake" by fencing only Assam's border stretches while leaving other sections open, which, he said, enabled illegal migrants to enter through neighbouring states and subsequently move into Assam.

Sarma said the issue was later taken up by the BJP-led government at the Centre and that border fencing work had already begun in Meghalaya and Tripura. He added that similar work would now commence in West Bengal.

The Chief Minister said the Assam government's submission to the Demography Committee constituted by the Centre would emphasise the need to seal the entire India-Bangladesh border and ensure proper scrutiny of identities.

He said the committee's focus should be on studying demographic changes over time, including shifts in the population composition of different religious communities since Independence.

Referring to the Northeast's strategic vulnerabilities, Sarma said the region remains connected to the rest of the country through the narrow Siliguri Corridor and could face connectivity challenges in the event of a security threat. He said the Centre had initiated rail and road tunnel projects beneath the Brahmaputra and in the Siliguri corridor to strengthen connectivity and strategic resilience.

The Chief Minister also credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for prioritising the development of the Northeast, saying the Centre's infrastructure initiatives had transformed Assam through projects executed at an unprecedented scale and pace.

He further said the Prime Minister's support had helped attract investments into the State, particularly during the Advantage Assam 2.0 investment summit.