Malda, March 3: The BSF has written to the Malda district administration to immediately electrify the areas adjoining Bangladesh so that the guards could set up floodlights for more vigil and prevent people from the other side from crossing over in the cover of darkness.

BSF sources said smugglers and other criminal elements operating on both sides of the border were using the help of poor villagers on the Indian side to carry out their illegal activities. Stretches where there were no barbed wire fencing and the waterways were being utilised.

The deputy inspector-general of the BSF’s Malda range, Prabhat Singh Tomar, said till the villages were electrified, the border guards would be facing tremendous odds.

“We have written to the Malda district magistrate and the sabhadhipati of the zilla parishad. We have begun setting up of a three-phase fencing system and this work will continue at least for a year and before that lighting up the border was necessary,” Tomar said.

He said not a single kilometre of the 172km long Bangladesh border in Malda was electrified. He said there were frequent exchanges of fire between BSF jawans and criminals at night.

“We have stepped up vehicle patrolling for more vigil and to counter. Till the border villages get power we will have a tough time tackling cross-border crime,” the deputy inspector-general said.

Malda district magistrate Sridhar Ghosh said it was true that the BSF could not utilise the floodlights, as the border villages had no electricity. “We are taking this up on a priority basis.”

The Malda zilla parishad sabhadhipati, Sabina Yasmin, said villages on this side of the fence would receive power connections soon.

“We have Rs 100 crore sanctioned under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Mission. We will attend a meeting to discuss this with the BSF and the power department on March 5,” she said.