POROUS NEPAL, BHUTAN BORDERS FACILITATING DRUG TRAFFICKING

NEW DELHI, MARCH 25. The Special Service Bureau (SSB), responsible for
guarding the India-Nepal and India-Bhutan borders, is facing the challenge
of both the borders being open and porous and often being exploited by
smugglers and drug-traffickers.

Addressing a press conference on the eve of the SSB's 41st Raising Day, the
SSB Director-General, Diwakar Prasad, said the borders along both the
friendly countries posed no restrictions on the movement of people. Some of
the areas were prone to smuggling, drug trafficking, and activities of
saboteurs as well as to Maoist and ISI activities. Over the past two years,
as many as 300 persons suspected of being smugglers and drug-traffickers
were apprehended and contraband and narcotics worth Rs. 6.4 crores seized.
Mr. Prasad said the SSB has suggested to the Government to prepare a list of
identity documents to verify genuine nationals from Nepal as both the
countries enjoyed a visa-free regime and there were no restrictions on
travel. He hoped that expert groups from both countries would soon finalise
the list of documents. As part of its new role of extensive border
management, the SSB had surveyed "each and every inch of our area of
responsibility by way of special patrolling'' and identified the sensitivity
of each Border Observation Post (BOP) in each district, he said.

Poised for a major expansion, SSB -- the baby of all the Central
paramilitary forces -- would soon begin the process of raising another 25
battalions, doubling its strength for policing of its exclusive areas on the
India-Bhutan and India-Nepal borders. It patrols 1,751 km of the India-Nepal
border in Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim and the
India-Bhutan stretch of 661 km, which runs through Sikkim, West Bengal,
Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

According to the Indo-Nepal Treaty, there are 19 agreed immigration check
posts, 22 mutual trade routes, and 15 third country transit routes.

The SSB has so far set up 210 BOPs along the India-Nepal border and eight
such posts along the India-Bhutan border.