Residents along the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya are using Bangladesh SIM cards for communication, Meghalaya’s Opposition Leader Donkupar Roy informed the assembly on Monday.

Roy, who was participating in the amendment to the motion of thanks on the Governor’s Address, urged the government to take steps to ensure connectivity in rural areas and those along the international borders. ‘People are using the Bangladeshi SIM cards to communicate with relatives and friends, since no landline connection is available in the international border and mobile networks are very poor,’ the veteran United Democratic Party legislator said.

Shella constituency, which is represented by Roy, is on the India-Bangladesh border. He revealed that he also has a Bangladesh SIM card but does not use it, knowing that it is illegal. ‘However, the people on the border have no option and are compelled to use Bangladeshi SIM card for better communication,’ he said.

The UDP legislator informed the assembly that even the Border Security Force troopers are using the Bangladeshi SIM cards. ‘Once I asked one BSF personnel about the problem, who told me that communicating with his colleagues was very difficult. While we were sitting, I saw one personnel was also communicating by using Bangladeshi SIM card,’ Roy claimed.