SHILLONG: Nearly 10,000 cattle heads were seized at the Meghalaya stretch of the Indo-Bangladesh border in 2020 alone. The seizure includes the lockdown and also the post-lockdown periods. This was stated by Meghalaya Frontier chief of Border Security Force (BSF) during an interaction with the media here.
Lauding the troopers for carrying out multi-tasking by not only herding but also feeding the cattle seized along the international borders, BSF IG Hardeep Singh pointed out the seized cattle were meant for smuggling to Bangladesh. He, however, added that the BSF is facing problems after the Department of Customs refused to take over the bovines due to certain notifications. "I agree that our jawans have to be cowherds also. But, we have also tied up with certain district administrations for handing over the cattle heads to them," said Singh.
Pointing out that the task of managing the seized cattleheads is turning out to be an additional burden to the jawans in a few border outposts. Besides, the jawans have the main duty to secure the 445-km border. The IG hoped that completion of fencing at the remaining 30 per cent areas will reduce such smuggling activities.
Referring to the pandemic, he said that about 700 BSF personnel posted in Meghalaya were infected with COVID-19. The BSF IG also announced that that all the Coronavirus-infected personnel have recovered. He also disclosed that around 448 personnel have volunteered for the plasma vaccine.